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Florence E. Brigkt 



Illu^rated by 

H azeltine Sewsmith 


The Reilly & Britton Co. 
Chicago 






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Copyright, 1916 
by 

The Reilly & Britton Co. 



AUG 31 1916 


©CI.A438193 


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To 

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CONTENTS 

Who the Greek Gods Were 17 

King Alfred the Great 19 

A Trot Through the Woods 21 

July 24 

Zeus Rewards Kindness 25 

August 27 

When the Sea-Fairies Frolic 28 

Little Children of the Wigwam 30 

IGng Canute 31 

“For the Fairest” 33 

September 36 

Edward the Confessor 37 

The Children of Charles 1 39 

The Fall of Troy 41 

William of Normandy 43 

Little Cherry-Blossom Friends 44 

October 45 

The Story of the Pumpkin 46 

How Phaeton Drove the Sun Chariot 49 

The Princes in the Tower 52 

Richard the Lion-Hearted 53 

November 54 

How Thanksgiving Day Began 55 

How Christmas Is Celebrated 57 

How Pluto Kidnapped Proserpine 60 

The Songs of a Blind Poet 62 

King John 63 

Arachne the Weaver 65 

Eskimo Children 68 

January 69 

Finding the Body of Harold 70 


Contents Continued 


Robert the Bruce 72 

Romulus 74 

A Winter Adventure 76 

Cadmus the Dragon Slayer 81 

George Washington 84 

Abraham Lincoln 86 

Saint Valentine's Day 88 

The Black Prince 89 

Virgil 92 

The Death of Nelson 94 

A Bird Story 96 

Prometheus and Pandora 97 

Henry the Eighth 101 

St. Patrick's Day 102 

Dante j 104 

Themistocles 1 106 

The Little Match Girl 109 

When March Winds Blow I . . 112 

Pygmalion and Galatea | . 113 

Geoffrey Chaucer 116 

Edmund Spenser 118 

Lady Jane Gray 120 

Spring Is Here ! 122 

Master Will Shakespeare and Stratford-on-Avon 125 

Orpheus and Eurydice 129 

St. Augustine, Florida 132 

Memorial Day 136 

Hansel and Gretel 138 

Elizabeth, Queen of England 142 

Niobe 145 

Ulysses S. Grant 148 

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 150 

Mary, Queen of Scots 156 

The Jolly Month of June ’ .... 160 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


King Alfred and the Cakes 

Baucis and Philemon Turned Into Trees 

Canute Discards His Crown 

Paris Awards the Apple to Venus 

Edward Wakes to See the Rubber 

The Children of Charles I 

The Horse Made by the Greeks 

Phaeton Approaches His Father’s Palace. . . 

The Princes in the Tower 

Puritan Children 

The Christmas “Waits” 

Pluto Carries Proserpine Away 

The Goddess Ceres 

Arachne at Work 

Finding the Body of Harold 

The Wolf Finds Romulus and Remus 

Cadmus Slays the Dragon • • 

The Black Prince Serves the French King. . 

The Death of Nelson 

Pandora Lifts the Lid of the Jar 

Prometheus Chained to the Rock 

Henry VHI and Anne Boleyn 

St. Patrick the Shepherd 

Dante and Beatrice 

Pygmalion and Galatea 

Characters From the Canterbury Tales 

The House in Which Shakespeare Was Born 

The Boy Shakespeare 

Shakespeare Courting 

Shakespeare in London 

The Church at Stratford '• • • 


20 

26 

31 

34 

37 

39 

42 

50 

52 

55 

58 

60 

61 

66 

70 

74 

82 

90 

94 

98 

99 

101 

103 

104 

114 

116 

125 

126 

127 

127 

128 


Illustrations Continued 


Orpheus and Eurydice in Hades 131 

Ponce de Leon 133 

Hansel and Gretel in the Witch’s House 139 

Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth 142 

Niobe Becomes a Mountain Spring. 146 

The Genie of the Lamp. : 153 

Mary, Queen of Scots 156 

Mary, Queen of Scots, Led to Execution 158 

Edinburgh Castle 159 








INTRODUCTION 

A good story is something more 
than just a help to while away an 
idle hour. It ought to mean some- 
thing. It ought not to be like the 
man who lived away off from all 
neighbors, and answered, when he 
was asked what he did to pass the 
time : “Oh, sometimes I set and think, 
and sometimes I jist set.” A story 
should do more than “jist set.” It 
ought to have thoughts. 

Now, the really good story isn’t 
any the less enjoyable because it 
makes you think. If it tells you what 
other people have said and thought 
and done, it is teaching you about 
this good old world in which you live. 
It is not like a lesson at school that 
you have to learn by heart ; it reaches 
your heart the first time, and your 
mind never forgets 'what your heart 
tells you. 













So it is worth while to read good 
stories, but, best of all, it is fun. The 
old myths, the tales that have been 
handed down for so long that every- 
one has forgotten just how much is 
fact and how much only make-believe ; 
the fairy tales that are all “let’s pre- 
tend”; the true stories of the men 
and women who have helped make 
the world a better place to live in ; all 
these belong to each one of us, and 
whether we know it or not, each goes 
to make a part of life as we find it. 

Christmas Day would still be 
the birthday of the Christ-Child if 
you did not know the story of the 
lowly manger in Bethlehem — but 
there wouldn’t be the same sweet 
meaning in the day. Fourth of July 
w'ould still bring its fireworks and 
gayety if you had never heard of the 
Liberty Bell — but you wouldn’t feel 
that thrill of pride when the fiag is 
unfurled to the summer breeze. 

It all belongs to us all; and the 
nice thing about it is that taking our 
share does not rob anyone else. 


In this book are not all the good 
stories— not even all the old Greek 
and Roman myths. Reading these 
will make you want more of them, 
and they are easy to find. You will 
never tire of the old legends; they 
have come down through all the ages 
because there was something in them 
that would not die. Just so with the 
men and women whose life stories are 
told here; they gave something to the 
worlds— to you and to me — that will 
endure forever. 

And the lessons they teach — you 
will never know them as lessons, for 
a story talks to the heart, and the 
heart does not study; it only feels. 
First of all, these are tales to enjoy — 
and you will enjoy them. You may 
be sure you will like them better than 
stories that “jist set.” 




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THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 

I. WHO THE GREEK GODS WERE 

and hundreds of years ago there was 
but a handful of people in the world as compared 
with the number we now have. That was before 
the great discoverers had made their long voyages 
across the seas and had found America and other 
new lands. There was, however, tucked away, 
down in one corner of Europe, a tiny country. It 
was called Greece. If you were to go to Greece today, you would find 
a beautiful land, but the people who live there are, for the most part, 
very simple and unprogressive. Notwithstanding this, in the early 
ages this little Greece was the most important country in the world, 
for it was the centre of all education and learning. 

The Greeks did not have one God as we have now. They wor- 
shiped a great number of gods and goddesses. They believed that 
these gods were giant men and women. They thought that a num- 
ber of them lived on the top of a high mountain there in Greece, 
called Mount Olympus. From this mountain the gods and the god- 
desses watched over the people. Sometimes they protected them 
from harm. Often they caused evil to come upon them. 

Every now and then some god or goddess would come down 
into the world in the form of a man or a woman. Sometimes they 
would speak to the people through a hole in a rock in a certain place. 
This was called an “oracle.” When anything important was about to 
happen, the people would go to one of these oracles and would ask 
questions of the gods. 

Up on the mountain, the gods and goddesses lived just like men 
and women. Of course, everything they had was very lovely. There 





17 








was a wonderful garden,, through which ran a 
broad river. The gods and goddesses enjoyed this 
garden, and passed much of their time with the 
birds and flowers. They had a king whose name 
was Zeus. He was also called Jupiter. The Greeks 
pictured him as a great, tall man, with heavy 
brows and thick, curly locks. When Jupiter was angry he was sup- 
posed to ride through the heavens in a great chariot and to throw 
from this chariot terrible thunderbolts that would shake the earth. 
When his eyes flashed there was lightning and the people below 
knew that in some way the king of the gods had been displeased. 

The wife of Jupiter, and the queen of the gods, was Hera, or 
Juno. She was a wise and motherly woman. She was very proud, 
but she was much pleasanter than her husband. Jupiter had two 
brothers. One was Neptune, who ruled over the seas. He traveled 
in a boat of high waves drawn by a number of sea animals. He 
made the storms on the ocean, and he was the cause of all the 
wrecks. The other brother was Pluto, who looked after the world 
under the ground. Pluto owned all the mines, and the rich ores and 
jewels that they contained. Jupiter also had a sister, Vesta, who 
was the goddess of the hearth and looked after the interests of the 
homes of men. 

There was, too, a god of fire, whose name was Vulcan. He was 
the son of Jupiter and Juno. The Greeks said that he was lame. 
They called him “the blacksmith of the gods,” and believed that he 
controlled the eruptions of volcanoes. 

The god of war, who helped men to win battles, was Mars. He 
was another son of Jupiter. He spent much of his time down on 
earth, inspiring the soldiers. 

Apollo, the god of the sun, was a brother of Vulcan and Mars. 
He was skilful with the bow and arrow, and he shot the sunbeams 
over the world from his chariot of golden fire. He had a twin sister, 
called Diana, who was the goddess of the moon, and passed her 
nights hunting through the forests. 

There was a goddess of love, who was still another daughter of 
Jupiter. Her name was Venus. She was wonderfully beautiful. Her 


18 


son was a cunning little fellow, known as Cupid, and though he was 
blind, he was able to shoot arrows from his small bow and pierce 
with them the hearts of men and women, so that they loved each other. 

Jupiter had one more son and one more daughter. The son was 
Mercury. He was sometimes called Quicksilver, because he could fly 
so quickly through the air. Mercury carried messages to and from 
Mount Olympus, and he went about among men a great deal. His 
sister was Minerva, who was noted for her wisdom. She told men 
how to act in times of great danger. She also made peace among 
the gods when they quarreled with one another. 

These were not all of the gods and goddesses. They were the 
ones to whom the people looked most frequently, however. What- 
ever happened on the earth was in some way ruled over by at least 
one of them. 

The Greeks had many interesting adventures, in all of which 
some god or goddess had a part. Some of these adventures will be 



LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 

I. KING ALFRED THE GREAT 

HIS is the story of the first great English king. 
His name was Alfred and he lived over eleven 
hundred years ago. At that time the island which 
is now England and Scotland was a very wild 
country, filled with uncivilized people. The men 
were hunters and fighters; they were big, brawny 
fellows, who knew how to throw a spear but did 
not know how to read a book. They lived in mud huts and wore 
skins of animals. 

Just as today England has a king, so in those days the people 
were ruled over by kings, who had full power over their subjects. 
No one dared disobey them. Often they were cruel, harsh men. 

Alfred the Great was not this kind of king. He treated his 
people justly, and gave them land and wealth in return for their 
services. He wanted them to be educated and peaceful. 



19 


The hardest thing for any man to do is to keep from fighting 
when he has a good cause to fight for. King Alfred had many chances 
to go to war with the people around him. It was very much to his 
credit that he said : “No ; we will stay at home and learn a little how 
to be good.” Then he started to build ships which would protect 
his island from invaders. In this way he began the English navy, 
which is now the greatest navy in the world. 

To educate his people as he wished to do was a hard task. They 
were completely ignorant and did not even know how to read their 
own church services. Alfred sought out the few scholars in the king- 
dom, and together they wrote new services, which the people were 
taught to read. Alfred also put into English works written by 
scholars in other countries, so that his subjects might know some- 
thing more about the world around them. 

He tried to help his people to wealth and happiness. In order 
to do this he had to know them. So he would sometimes dress like 
a workingman and go into the homes of his subjects, who would 



There is a tale told of how one day he visited a poor woman 
in her lowly hut. She was baking cakes, and she told him to watch 
them while she went to get some fuel. Alfred was thinking so deeply 
about the problems of his kingdom that he forgot the cakes and they 
were burned. The woman came back and scolded him soundly. He 
merely laughed, but he paid her for the spoiled cakes. 

All of King Alfred’s life proves that he was noble and fine in 
character. His good disposition and his wisdom helped his people 
to be better men and women. Any man who lives up to his best 
will help others to do the same. Therefore, King Alfred is known as 
the greatest and most splendid of the early English kings. 


20 





j 


07 


A 







A Trot Through the Woods 

U p bright and early with the sun, 
the six of us waited impatiently 
to be off on a day’s outing. 
We were living in the suburbs, and 
mother had promised to take us for a 
trip to the country near by. 

At last, laden down with good 
things to eat, we set off. 

We walked down the lane from our 
garden and along the road for a short 
distance; then entered a field where 
the tall grass stood high and tickled 
our chins and noses as we passed 
along. 

“Oh, mother, look! look!” cried 
Jim. There, right before us, was 
a big field of beautiful, gleaming 
yellow. Jim and I ran toward it 
and found a mass of pretty, large, 
daisy-like flowers. As mother came 
up, she stooped to pick a few. “These 
are the ‘black-eyed Susans,’ or ‘ox- 
eyed daisies,’ ” she said. “They are 
very much like our white daisies, only 
larger and of a different color.” 

We each gathered an armful of 
them, for there were thousands in 
the field. As we picked, we found 
a whole company of butterflies were 
hovering by, lingering about the big 
yellow flowers and resting with 
folded wings on the broad petals. 

By and by we came to a stream. As 
we crossed this on a tiny foot-bridge. 




21 


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Dot exclaimed, “Oh mother, see those 
queer-looking bugs flying about!” 
“Yes,” mother answered once more; 
“they are what we used to call 
‘bad man’s needles’ — in other terms, 
‘dragon-flies.’ Their bodies are long 
and thin, while their wings are wide 
and transparent. You will see many 
of them, nearly every one different, as 
we go along, particularly near water, 
for it is there that the mother lays 
her eggs.” 

On the far side of the stream, we 
came again into a field. It seemed 
that every step we took was followed 
by a sharp, clapping sound, which 
caused us to wonder. Then we saw a 
number of brown-bodied insects dart- 
ing hither and thither, and we thought 
they were grasshoppers until mother 
explained to us that they were locusts. 
On closer inspection, we found that 
the locust has a brown body, with 
folded wings underneath. These wings 
are yellow and black. The grasshop- 
per’s body is green, and its under 
wings are gauzy and fine. 

“That butterfly which you see over 
on that tall blade of grass is the 
‘swallow-tail,’ ” mother went on to tell 
us. “Its wings are yellow, dipped in 
black; with long black tails, which 
give it its name.” 

“What are those pretty white flow- 
ers?” asked Jack. “Oh, I know, I 
know!” cried Jim. “They are ‘Queen 








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Anne's lace !’ ” “Right you are, my 
boy,” said mother. “Their other name 
is ‘wild carrot,’ and they do greatly 
resemble fine old lace.” 

At last we came to another small 
stream, with trees overhanging, and 
here we decided to have our lunch. So 
we spread out a cloth and unpacked 
the good things Dinah had given us. 
We were hungry, and we ate with a 
good spirit. 

When we had finished. Jack and 
Jim said they were going to walk on a 
little farther while we girls and 
mother rested. When they returned 
they brought the news that the field 
beyond was covered with cat-tails. So 
we left mother and Baby Bob under 
the trees, while Dorothy, Maud and I 
helped the boys to gather cat-tails. 
We thought we had made a fortunate 
find. Maud, however, was to surprise 
us still more, for, not far away, she 
discovered a clump of blackberry 
bushes just filled with ripe berries. 
With a whoop. Jack and Jim took off 
their hats and we made short work 
of trimming the bushes. Then we 
went back to mother, with our arms 
full of cat-tails and our lips with 
blackberry juice; but that made no 
difference to us. By this time mother’s 
watch declared it to be growing late ; 
so, with our flowers and some of the 
berries in our lunch baskets, we 
started for home. 


CAN YOU 



JULY 


What kind of days, then, does July bring? 

Days that are warmer than beautiful Spring- 
Long, golden days, with a wonderful sun, 

Who splendidly shines till his course is run. 

What grows in the fields in bright July ? 

Wheat and corn and barley and rye. 

What lives in the gardens, ’neath skies so blue? 

Roses and marigolds ; hollyhocks too. 

What grows in the hedge where the white roads wind ? 
Raspberries, currants ; the wild rose behind. 

What sings in the woods, where the leaves are still ? 
The robin, the wren, and the whippoorwill. 

What murmurs in field and through meadows of green? 
The bumblebee and the farmer’s machine. 

What flies over flowers and sings at night ? 

Why, butterflies gay and the cricket so bright. 

So, days of July are both hot and long. 

But still they are days of sunshine and song. 


24 


THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 

II. ZEUS REWARDS KINDNESS 

e king of the gods, was angry. For a long 
the people in one of the villages of Greece 
sen very wicked. They ignored the wishes of 
3ds entirely. Zeus made up his mind that 
must be punished. He determined, however, 
ve them one last chance to show that they 
not all bad. Therefore, he took his son Mer- 
cury and together they made a journey to the village. You will recall 
that Mercury was the messenger of the gods and that he had wings. 
When he went to the earth with his father he left his wings behind 
him. They both dressed like ordinary men, in order that no one 
should know that they were gods. 

When they arrived in the village they found the people very 
inhospitable. They were treated like unwelcome strangers. Their 
request for food was met with jeers. “Go earn your own food,” the 
people said; “we have none to spare.” There was, however, one 
cottage at the door of which they were received in a more friendly 
fashion. This was the very modest home of an old man named 
Philemon, who lived there with his wife Baucis, These two had 
lived together for years in perfect harmony. They quarreled with 
no one and gave gladly of what little they had. Early in life these 
people had decided that in order to be comfortable they must live 
carefully and without show. 

As the two gods came up to the house of Philemon and Baucis 
they were greeted kindly with “Good day, gentlemen. Will you not 
come in and rest after your journey?” Zeus and Mercury accepted 
the invitation and went into the house. Here Baucis the wife placed 



25 


chairs for them and set about preparing a meal. No people could 
have been more friendly to strangers than this quaint old man and 
woman. Baucis poured out a bowl of clear, warm water and bade 
them wash off the stains of travel. While they were doing this the 
elder of the visitors remarked about the seeming selfishness of their 
neighbors. At this Philemon shook his head sadly and said, “Poor 
people, they do not know what they are doing. They think only of 
themselves and of the present. They forget about the time that is 
to come. They have no thought for the wishes and commands of 
our gods.” 

In the meantime Baucis had made, and had set upon the table, 
a tasty supper. As they sat down she apologized for its scantiness. 
There was a stew of bacon and fresh green herbs ; there were olives 



and a queer kind of sour dish made of pickled berries. For dessert 
there were grapes just picked from the vine. With these things 
Baucis served a pitcher of wine. Now, wine was very scarce in this 
house. It shows how much she wanted to honor her guests that she 
used this precious possession at all. She was even sorry that there 
was so little of it and hoped that the strangers would forgive her. 
“Do not apologize, my good woman,” said Zeus; “your table looks 
very inviting.” With that he poured himself a generous glass of 
wine. Moreover, he poured three other glasses and said, “Come, 
friends, let us drink together; there is plenty for all.” Odd as it 
may seem, with every glass of wine taken from the pitcher there 
was a double amount left. Philemon and his wife could not believe 
their eyes as they saw the once half -filled pitcher almost overflowing 


26 


with sparkling wine. In the end Jupiter and Mercury had to 
acknowledge who they were. The two old people humbly fell on 
their knees and begged forgiveness for offering so little. Then 
Jupiter replied, “You are good, kindly people, and you shall be 
rewarded. All the other men and women of this village shall be 
punished. I shall return to my home in the mountains and shall 
cause a great flood to come upon this place.” 

It seemed less than no time before the lake near the village 
suddenly grew in size. The water became so high that it overflowed 
the banks and swallowed up all the land and houses around. The 
people themselves could not escape from the flood, and all of them 
were drowned. Philemon and Baucis alone did not die, for, as Jupiter 
had promised, their little house was left untouched. More than this, 
without warning, the cottage was transformed into a beautiful man- 
sion, full of everything wonderful to look upon. For years after- 
ward the two old people lived in plenty. Often Zeus or Mercury 
would come to visit them. On one of these occasions Zeus said, 
“Good people, I wish to do something for you. Name anything you 
wish, and the wish shall be granted.” Then Baucis and Philemon 
shyly pleaded that they might never be separated from each other. 
Not long after that Baucis and Philemon noticed on each other little 
branches, with a few sprouting leaves. They were turning into 
trees, the two of them. One became a tall oak tree, and the other a 
linden. In this way Jupiter kept his promise that they should never 
know the sorrow of parting from each other. 


AUGUST 

C OME with me to the August fields. 

Where Summer her harvest of golden grain yields; 
Come where the haymakers cheerily sing. 

And where the crow flies on velvety wing. 

There’s a harvest moon in the starry sky. 

In its long, broad beams the great moths fly ; 

There’s the toot of an owl in the deep wood’s way ; 

All the night is alive with insects gay. 

Come, gather the goldenrod where it gleams, 

And make us a posy ring after our dreams. 


27 


WHEN THE 
SEA-FAIRIES FROLIC 


W HEN the sun goes low 

And the stars ride high, 
And the sea roars 

restless below; 
When the waves make a dash, 
Strike the shore with a splash — 
Then the fairies wake up 
with a sigh. 

And they rub their eyes 
While their wings they shine, 
Then they gather where bright 
the sand lies; 

Here they dance till the dawn. 
Till the stars are all gone; 

Of their fun they leave 

never a sign. 

Now these fairies small 
Have some friends, you see, 
Who will answer their 

slightest call; 


VJ 



?o 





For the starfish will ride 
With the sand-crab beside, 

And the shell-boats will 

all laden be. 

From a coral strand 
The pink rafts will glide, 

All their passengers booked 

from Fairyland; 
And with shouts of glee 
O’er a mischievous sea 
They will come with 

the flowing tide. 

In a palace grand 
Underneath the light 
Of a moon on the 

shimmering sand. 
There will be a wild dance 
As the sea-fairies prance 
Till the day-dawn 

emerges from night. 







29 






are the “little children of the wigwam”? They 
are the Indian boys and girls who, hundreds of 
years ago, lived in the very places where many of 
us now live. Long before Columbus discovered 
the land that was called America, these people — 
the fathers of the wigwam children — hunted and 
fished and had their feasts and their funerals in 
the great forests that then covered the land. For there were no 
cities in those days, and no houses. The people lived in groups in 
different places, and wandered first here and then there as they 
wished. When they stayed in a place they set up tents, which were 
called wigwams. 

The children of the wigwams were cunning and fat, just as 
babies nowadays are when they are healthy. But they were very 
brown, for the skin of their parents was brown, too. The mother 
of these babies was not held in reverence by the father, as your 
mother is held by your father. The wife of the red man, or the 
“squaw,” as she was called, was made to work hard all the time. 
She had no chance to sit down and cuddle her baby, but she loved 
the baby as every mother will. She planned as well as she could 
for his comfort. First, she took a rough board from a tree that had 
been cut down. On the flat surface of the board she spread soft, 
long grasses. On this she laid her child. Then she cut straps of 
the skins of animals, and with these she bound the baby on the 
board. To the back of this queer carrier she fastened another strong 
strap, and this strap was long enough that with it she could tie the 
bundle to a tree or to her back. The baby was called a “papoose.” 

In some parts of the country the Indians knew enough to raise 
grain. This was the beginning of American agriculture. It was 
the Indians who first raised corn, and it was from them that the 


30 



white man learned of the grain that is used in such great quan- 
tities now. 

The boys of the wigwam were lazy like their fathers. They 
simply told their mothers and sisters what to do and it was done. 
There was no language among them — only a form of signs. Many 
of the boys and young men were handsome. Their black hair, their 
graceful figures and their sharp, dark eyes made them very attrac- 
tive. The women were not so good-looking; they wore shapeless 
robes of animal skins and covered themselves with bright beads. 
The men wore little but skins thrown around them. They, too, liked 
brilliant colors and painted their faces until sometimes they looked 
hideous. Some of them wore large bands of feathers around their 
heads to make them appear more war-like. The Indian was seldom 
seen without a tomahawk, or ax, and this he would brandish around 
in his hands to bring terror to those about him. 

These then were the people who first lived in America. When 
the white men came, with their greater civilization and intellects, 
they gradually drove the “red-skins” into the wide plains of the 
West. Then the children of the wigwam were taken from their 
homes in the tents and many of them were sent to schools. Today 
numbers of these children have grown up to be educated and useful. 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 


II. KING CANUTE 


FTER the reign of the good King Alfred the land which we 



now call England fell into the hands of the Danes. These 


^ people lived in a small country on the border of the sea. 
Their land was known as Denmark. The kings of the Danes were 
not good men. They oppressed their subjects and were continually 
fighting with everyone around them. 

There came at last, however, a better man to be king. His 
name was Canute, and he was just and sensible and anxious to give 
his people the help they needed to become prosperous and settled. 
He was so different from the kings they had known that his subjects 
almost worshipped him. For King Canute they would have done 
whatever he asked of them. They believed, too, that he was able to 
accomplish anything he might set out to do. 

It sometimes happens that a man’s friends praise him too much. 
The counsellors of King Canute fell into the habit of flattering him. 
They kept telling him all the time how wonderful they thought he 
was. King Canute was too well-balanced to accept all that his 
friends said as true. Sometimes he grew weary of their flattery 


31 


and wished they would let him alone. One day he asked them, “Do 
you think that all the men in the whole wide world would obey me?” 
They answered that they were sure that they would. The king 
smiled and asked: “Do you think that the sea would obey me?” 
Once more they replied “Yes,” that the sea would. Many a man 
would have been pleased with 
this response, but not so Canute. 

He was too great to be deceived 
by the wish of his followers to 
keep his favor. He said to them, 

“If it be true that the sea will 
obey me, we will prove it. Come 
down to the seashore with me.” 

Then they made a procession and 
the king was carried high in a 
beautifully carved chair. When 
they reached the edge of the ocean 
the chair was set down and the 
men stood around reverently un- 
til the king should speak. Canute 
waited a moment and then he 
lifted up his voice and cried 
loudly, “Stop where you are, oh, 
sea ! You waves, come no farther. 

Throw away your white caps and 
cease rolling.” There was a silence 
after that. Only, the sea did not 
stop rolling ; the waves came beat- 
ing in, one after another, and the 
white caps burst into fine, frothy 
spray. The king turned to his 
followers. He was not angry; he 
knew that not he nor any other 
man could control the sea. He 
smiled on those about him. “You 
see,” he said, “my voice is not enough to make the ocean give obedi- 
ence.” Then he took the crown from his head and held it high. He 
stepped out of his chair into the water. He tossed the crown far 
from him. “I shall no more wear a crown,” he said. “Let this be 
a lesson to you. There is only one voice with might great enough 
to bid the sea stay still. That is the voice of the All-Powerful One, 
who rules over the heavens as well as over the earth. It is to Him 
that you must bow in worship.” - • 



32 



THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 


III. “FOR THE FAIREST” 





[OU have all heard of the famous walls of Troy. 
Many years ago Troy was a beautiful city. It was 
situated in Asia Minor, opposite Greece. Its king 
was called Priam, and he had one son named 
Hector and a much younger son who was known 
as Paris. The daughter of Priam was Cassandra, 
and she was what in those days they called a seer ; 
in other words, she could look into the future and tell what was 
going to happen. Now, when the baby prince Paris was born, Cas- 
sandra told how that he would one day bring dreadful misfortune 
to his family. ' Therefore, instead of bringing the young prince up 
in the palace, the family sent him away at an early age to live in the 
country, and as he grew up he was trained to be a shepherd. So 
Paris wandered over the hillsides of Mount Ida and tended his flocks. 

Just about this time all the gods and goddesses of Greece were 
invited to a wedding. Only one goddess was 'not asked. This was 
Discord, and great was her indignation when she found that she was 
not to be among the wedding-guests. 

Discord determined to have her revenge on those who had 
offended her. On the day of the marriage she hid herself near the 
place where the feast was to be. While the guests were wandering 
happily among the groves and enjoying the good things provided 
for them. Discord crept in among them. Suddenly she lifted up her 
hand and threw something into the very midst of the assembled 
company. Everybody clamored for it, and when it was picked up it 
was found to be an apple, all of gold, and on it were inscribed these 
words, “For the Fairest.” 


33 



You can well imagine the excitement that followed. There were 
many beautiful goddesses present and each thought herself entitled 
to the prize. After much argument, however, the choice narrowed 
down to three. These were Juno, the queen of the gods; Minerva, 
the goddess of wisdom, and Venus, the goddess of love. None of 
these three would consent to give the apple to either of the other 
two. Finally, some one made the suggestion that the choice be left 
to a mortal. After more discussion it was decided that the young 
shepherd known as Paris should say to which goddess the apple 
should go. 


PARIS AWARDS THE APPLE TO VENUS 



Thereupon Minerva, Juno and Venus sought out Paris where 
he tended his sheep, and each made him wonderful promises as to 
what she would give him should he award the apple to her. 

Juno promised to make him wealthy and powerful; Minerva 
promised him great fame as a warrior; Venus said to him in her 
most charming way, “If you will give me the apple, I will get for 
you the most beautiful woman in the world for your wife.” 

The last promise was too great a temptation for the young 
shepherd, and he decided that Venus deserved the apple marked 
“For the Fairest.” 


34 


In this way a great trouble was brought upon the city of Troy. 
For the most beautiful woman in the world was Helen, the wife of 
Menelaus, the King of Sparta. In the years before Helen was mar- 
ried, all the warriors of Greece had tried to win her. When at last 
she chose Menelaus for her husband, her other suitors took a vow : 
that should she ever, for any cause, leave Menelaus, they would go 
anywhere to fight in order to bring her back. 

Now when Paris was told by Venus to go to Sparta after Helen, 
he first went back to Troy. There his family tried to persuade him 
to remain at home, because they knew that his attempt to win Helen 
would only mean a war with the Greeks for themselves. But Paris 
persisted in going his own way. 

Arrived in Sparta, Paris was received by Menelaus as an hon- 
ored guest. But he very ungratefully set about at once to persuade 
Helen to return to Troy with him. Helen, who was as vain as she 
was beautiful, was fascinated by the handsome young prince and his 
eager lovemaking, and soon consented to go away with him. 

When Menelaus discovered that his guest had left and that his 
wife was also gone, he was furious. He called together all his allies. 
Among these were Ulysses, Achilles and Agamemnon. Somehow the 
enthusiasm with which these various heroes had promised their aid 
to Menelaus should Helen not prove faithful had lessened. Ulysses 
was happily married and had a son. He was not so keen on leaving 
his home. The father and mother of Achilles did not desire him to 
go to war at all, and Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, was very 
much occupied with other affairs. However, at the call of Menelaus, 
they came to Sparta and held a council of war. At this council they 
decided to take an army to the plains that lay around the city of 
Troy. Then they would besiege the city, and if they were victorious, 
the mighty walls of Troy should fall and with them should go down 
to death the house of Priam and the unfaithful woman who had 
deserted her husband. 



35 




I N bright September pile the corn-husks high, 

And garner in the pumpkins from the fields ; 

You will hear the hunters calling, while the hounds 


nearby. 

Seek eagerly the foxes that the thick wood shields. 

Somewhere a bird with whistle low. 

Makes music in the meadow, growing bare ; 

While from the stream beyond, the breezes blow 
The sound of cows still idly browsing there. 

A little while and all the summer sounds — 

Bird-songs, and cattle lowing and the huntsmen’s 
shout — 

Will not be heard; the call to hounds 

Will die away, and silence then will spread about. 


So come, enjoy September while we may. 
For ’tis a month for gaiety and play ! 



36 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 



|FTER the reign of the wise and good King Canute 
there were hard and bloody times for the people 
of England. Canute himself, as you know, had 
been a strong man, but his kingdom now fell into 
the hands of his unworthy son, Harold. Harold 
was not really the heir to the throne, but, taking 
advantage of the absence of his brother, Hardi- 
canute, he made himself king. When Harold died, Hardicanute came 
into his own. He was a terrible man, and there are blood-curdling 
tales told of how he dug up the body of his brother and threw it 
into a marsh. 


EDWARD WAKES TO SEE THE ROBBER 

You will remember that Canute was a Dane, who had come 
from Denmark and had seized the throne from the English king. 
After the death of Hardicanute the English people felt that they 
could no longer endure the rule of such bloodthirsty men. So they 
called to the throne one who came from the ancient line of 
Alfred. This man was Edward, known in later years as Edward the 


III. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR 


37 



Confessor. This title was given him because he made a great pre- 
tense of being very devout and of living a holy life. He was totally 
different from the Danish kings in that he was mild and gentle. 
He never became violent, and seemed almost like a woman. So 
peaceful was his reign that the people of that time almost wor- 
shiped him, although in later years it was realized that he had in 
reality been weak and even mean-spirited. 

The real ruler of England was Earl Godwin, whose daughter 
became Edward’s wife. Edward did not, however, treat his wife 
very kindly. He neglected her for his religious duties, and when she 
displeased him he took away her jewels and shut her up in a convent. 

There is a story told of how Edward woke up one night to find 
a robber in his room. The robber was busy with a treasure chest, 
and Edward was so easy-going and ready to take the line of least 
resistance about everything, that he did not disturb the intruder. 
Instead, he said sleepily, “Take care, you rogue, or my chancellor 
will catch you and give you a good whipping.” The robber never 
knew that the king had seen him, and so got away with a great deal 
of gold. 

One thing that Edward brought to England was prosperity. 
He also started to build what is now the famous Westminster Abbey. 
As he grew older he became less and less kinglike. His health gave 
way and he was ill for a long time. 

Meanwhile, he had quarreled with Earl Godwin and had won 
the lasting enmity of the man who had been his best friend. When 
at last he died, the son of Godwin seized the throne and became 
Harold II. 



38 


WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT 
THIS PICTURE? 



THE children of CHARLES I. 

Painted by Anthony Van Dyck 

T here are three children in the picture, as you see. They 
are two princes and their sister, and they were the three 
elder children of a king of England, Charles I, who lived in 
the seventeenth century. The handsome boy at the left is the heir to 
his father’s throne; he was called the Prince of Wales, and later he 
became king under the title of Charles II. The baby in the centre is 
the little Duke of York, James by name, who succeeded Charles II 
as king and was known as James II. The girl in the picture is the 
Princess Mary. 

While Charles I, the father of these children, was king, a great 
Civil War broke out in England, under the leadership of a general 
named Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell defeated the king, and Charles 
was taken out from his palace and was beheaded. But before mat- 
ters came to this pass, the king had had the forethought to send his 
two sons to France. There they were taken care of and were edu- 
cated. Young Charles tried to get back his father’s throne by 
invading Scotland, but a great battle was fought and Charles had 
to flee back to France and hide there. Later, things in England 
settled down, and Charles was asked to come back and be king. 


39 



He did not make a very strong king. When he died the whole 
country was more or less relieved. Then the Duke of York became 
king, the baby in the picture. As James II, he began to work harm 
upon everybody not a Catholic in his kingdom. The result of his 
cruelty was a revolution, and he was forced to go back to France. 

In the meantime the Princess Mary had gone to live in Holland, 
where she married the Prince of Orange. They had a son William, 
and this William married his cousin, the daughter of James II. 
When the English people sent James out of the country they invited 
William of Orange and his wife, Mary, to come to England and rule 
there. This they did and things went smoothly once more. But you 
can see how many strange things may happen to boys and girls when 
they grow up. Neither of the little princes nor their sister realized 
what sorrows and troubles life had in store for them when the great 
painter from Flanders, Anthony Van Dyck, was asked to paint their 
picture. As they stood there in their velvet suits and fine laces they 
were probably as carefree as you boys and girls are today. You will 
notice that they had two dogs with them, and I do not doubt but that 
when Mr. Van Dyck said to them, “You may go; that will do for 
today,” they would take each other by the hands and, calling the 
dogs, would go scampering across the beautiful lawns at Whitehall 
Palace, playing at hide-and-seek among the great trees. 



for you 



c 

to 


drav ai}d 


40 


THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 

IV. THE FALL OF TROY 



|S soon as possible after Paris, the Prince of Troy, 
had run off with Helen, the wife of Menelaus, 
the Greek heroes set sail for Troy. For nine 
long years they besieged the city, but without 
result. Troy was strongly fortified and her war- 
riors were brave. Her strong walls resisted all 
the battering rams that the Greeks could place 
before them. Out on the plains beyond the city pitched 
battles would take place. There the Greeks had a great 
AiMKVY encampment, and there the Trojans came to fight the 
enemy at close range. First to one side and then to the 
other came a victory; for the gods of Olympus watched 
over the struggle, and some of them were friendly to the 
Greeks, while others were on the side of the Trojans. 
Among the bravest of the Trojan heroes, and the most 
favored of the gods, was Hector, the oldest son of King Priam 
and the brother of Paris. Now, it so happened that Hector, in his 
single-handed combats with the Greeks, killed Patroclus, the dearest 
friend of Achilles, the youngest and handsomest of the Greek heroes. 
Achilles became mad with the rage and sorrow caused by his 
friend’s death and vowed to have the life of Hector. He challenged 
the Trojan prince to meet him and fight with him, and the gallant 
Hector accepted the challenge. It was a mighty battle and Achilles 
won. Not satisfied, however, the enraged Greek tied the body of 
Hector to the tail of his chariot and dashed madly around the walls 
of Troy. Then great was the indignation of the Trojans and des- 
perate was their plight, for all loved Hector. After that Troy 
lost heart, and only the strength of her walls saved her from 
capture. 


41 


In those days, too, the Greeks began to tire of the struggle. 
Whereupon Ulysses, noted for craft, offered a suggestion. The 
Greeks were to pretend to give up the siege of the city and to with- 
draw their ships. Then a great horse was to be built of wood. This 
they would set up outside the gate of the city. It should be left 
there, in appearance an offering to the goddess Minerva. As a 
matter of fact, it should be filled with armed men ; and if the Tro- 
jans would do as Ulysses expected, they would take the horse into 
the city, and then the Greeks would come forth. 



THE HORSE MADE BY THE GREEKS 

Sure enough, when the Trojans saw the Greek ships starting 
away, they thought that the enemy had given up in despair and 
departed. They opened wide the gates and poured forth rejoicing. 
To their astonishment they found the great horse of wood and 
wondered about it. Some wanted to carry it into the city at once ; 
others were afraid of it. Finally, a Greek was discovered among 
them. They captured him and, on threat of death, demanded that 
he tell them what the horse meant. With much whining, he de- 
clared it to be an offering to the gods, but, he declared, it had been 
said among the Greeks that if the Trojans took possession of it 
calamity would come upon them. 


42 


At this the Trojans scoffed, and so the great horse was dragged 
inside the city. That night the soldiers came forth and opened 
the gates to the Greeks, who, under cover of darkness, had come 
back in their boats. 

The fall of Troy followed at once. With torches alight, the 
Greeks set fire to the city. They captured the women of the house 
of Priam; they killed the feeble old king; they plundered the pal- 
aces and carried away all the treasure they could find. Helen was 
restored to her husband and decided that after all she liked him 
best. So he took her back to Sparta in his ship and they reigned 
together for many years. We are not told that she ever regretted 
the death of Paris, who had yielded so weakly to the promises 
of the Goddess of Love. 


‘ LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 

IV. WILLIAM OF NORMANDY 


NE of the youngest boys in the history of the world 
to inherit a responsible position was William of 
Normandy. At the death of his father, when 
William was but eight years old, he became the 
Duke of Normandy, a large province in France. 
This particular duchy had for some time been 
flinging defiance at Henry, King of France. When 
William took his place at the head of the Normans, he was grieved 
at their attitude to the king, and said : 

“No longer shall we be at war with our noble king. He is our 
overlord, and has a right to ask us to obey his laws.” When Henry 
heard of William’s decision he was greatly pleased with the boy’s 



wisdom. 

In later years the boy’s courage grew, and he became one of 
the most daring men of his time. England was now in the hands 
of Harold, a weakling, and William believed that he would be far 
more able to rule the English people than was Harold. Accord- 
ingly, he crossed the sea and invaded the kingdom, meeting Harold 
at Hastings and defeating his army in a great battle. From that 
time William was proclaimed “the Conqueror.” 

The time came, however, when the awe felt by the English 
people for William wore off to some extent and there were those 
who ventured to protest against the rule of the “stranger.” It so 
happened that in the city of London there lived a young, fair-haired 
boy of six, Edgar, the heir of King Edward the Confessor. Dissat- 


43 


isfied subjects now sought to make the boy king. The plot failed, 
for no one could withstand William. Edgar was finally brought to 
the king, who greeted him pleasantly and offered him a home in 
his own palace. The boy remained for some time, and then started 
out for Hungary. On his way, he was driven by a storm to Scot- 
land, where Malcolm, the king, greeted him joyously. Malcolm 
promised to gain the crown of England for him. 

Once again an attempt was made, and failed. Then the Scotch 
king pleaded for Edgar, and William, who liked the lad, gave him 
a great estate and saw that he was generously provided for. 

Although William was accustomed to having his own way, even 
at the sword’s point, he was a kind-hearted man, as was shown by 
his treatment of Edgar. He ruled England wisely and justly, until 
the people almost forgot their feeling against him. 



cherry trees, and so we call the children of Japan “little Cherry- 
blossom Friends.” 

Now, how do these small children live? Not as we do, in houses 
of brick and wood, but in tiny thatch-roofed huts, many of them 
built of hardened mud. 

Japan is an island, or, rather, it is several islands, lying in a 
group in the far Pacific Ocean off the coast of Asia. These islands 
are rocky and sometimes bare, and the people live in constant fear 
of the eruptions of the great volcanoes. Sacred to the Japanese is 
the highest of their mountains. Mount Fuji, once a volcano, but now 
no longer active. In the background of every Japanese picture one 
sees this cone-shaped peak, capped with snow, and with a thin 
stream of smoke issuing from its top. 


44 


The Japanese people as a race are small; therefore, their chil- 
dren are very small. Quaint, indeed, are these little figures, with 
their pudgy faces, their long, narrow eyes, and their queer little 
caps of straight, stiff black hair, for their hair is cut in a strange 
fashion. 

These children do not dress like the children we know. They 
wear bright-colored, gayly flowered, loose robes, and wooden shoes 
strapped to their feet. They look like little old men and women. 

The children of Japan are, however, active and alert, splendid 
runners and enthusiastic at their games. They are a happy little 
people, and love with a very deep affection their land of perfume and 
flowers. 

Nowadays, many Japanese children are sent to England and 
America to be educated. They learn with unusual quickness. Then 
they carry their knowledge back to their own land, for they are a 
loyal little people, and they teach other boys and girls the strange, 
unusual things that they themselves have learned. 



S EE the little squirrels race. 

Round and round the tree they chase. 
Gathering nuts for winter store. 

Till their nests will hold no more. 

Now the autumn comes apace. 

Brightest hues the woodlands grace; 
Under foot the dry leaves sing. 

Wide the trees their bare arms fling. 

But winds grow chill and skies are gray. 
Night creeps quickly o’er the day; 

There’s a sadness fills the air, 

As slips away the summer fair. 


45 



The Story of the Pumpkin 

O NCE in the summer-time there 
peeped out from among the tall 
stalks of corn a tiny vine. Little 
by little it grew, until it bore great, 
rough leaves. After a short time several 
thin tendrils began to make their ap-» 
pearance. These clung to the cornstalks 
and gradually worked their way over to 
the poles that supported the young lima 
bean plants. 

One morning little Ellen Carter went 
out into the garden, and there on the 
pumpkin vine a wee green ball had 
formed. She ran in to tell her mother 
all about it. ‘‘Just think, mother,” she 
exclaimed, “some day that queer-looking 
green thing will be a big yellow pump- 
kin ! Do you think it will take very long 
for it to grow?” “Yes,” replied mother ; 
“I am afraid that it will. You cannot 
count on using it very soon.” So, every 
day, rain or shine, Ellen ran out to the 
warden to watch the vine. The ball was 
growing larger and larger each day, but 
it was still a bright green. 

Ellen was a very patient little girl, yet 
she did find it rather hard to wait. 
Therefore, when, in early September, 
the pumpkin showed a faint tinge of yel- 
low, the little girl danced with delight. 
At first it was only in spots that the 
gold appeared, but gradually it spread 
all over the fruit. There it lay in the 
midst of the green leaves— a big, round, 
shining yellow mass. When Ellen’s 


46 



father came home the little girl greeted 
him at once with : “Oh, father, come 
look at my pumpkin ! I am sure 
that it must be ready to pick.” Mr. 
Carter came out and, with a sharp 
thrust of his penknife, cut it off. “Now, 
little one,” he smiled, “what are you 
going to do with it?” Ellen thought a 
second. Then she said: “Wouldn’t it 
make a splendid Jack-o’-lantern?” “In- 
deed it would,” agreed her father. “Yes, 
and I can have a party, and mother can 
make us pumpkin pie from the in- 
sides.” So Ellen returned to the house 
with the large prize in her arms and 
told her mother all about her plans. 

It was October and school had begun, 
but I fear that Ellen’s lessons the follow- 
ing days were somewhat neglected. At 
recess she asked all her playmates to 
come to her house on Hallowe’en. The 
next few days were busy ones. There 
was popcorn to pop, and cakes and 
candy to make, for this was to be a real, 
live party. The day before the eventful 
occasion, Ellen and several of her dear- 
est friends went out into the woods to 
gather leaves for decorating the rooms 
and the table. What a host of gorgeous 
leaves they found — red and brown and 
yellow, of all shades and shapes! For it 
was autumn and the woods were gay 
with color. Then the children went to 
find fruit and nuts. Fall grapes were 
just ripe, and there were still many 
pears and apples, juicy and delicious. 
There were also some chestnuts and wal- 
nuts to be had for the picking up. Oh, 


47 



such a feast ! That night was one of the 
liappiest in little Ellen's experience. She 
and her friends had games of all kinds — 
fishing for apples in a dishpan ; trying to 
catch with their teeth apples suspended 
on strings and swinging from the ceil- 
ing; running potato races and having a 
gloriously good time altogether. 

Then at last came the good things to 
eat — and how good they were! There 
were roasted chestnuts, gingerbread, 
doughnuts, and all kinds of nuts, with 
popcorn, cider, fruit, and good old-fash- 
ioned molasses candy, to say nothing of 
cakes, both little and big. The room was 
beautiful to look upon. Twenty smiling, 
happy children, with eager, excited eyes, 
and rosy cheeks flushing with anticipa- 
tion — they ate with a will and laughed 
from the depths of their care-free hearts. 

At the very end of it all there came a 
huge pumpkin pie, and then Ellen called 
to have the lights put out. For just a 
few minutes there was darkness, and 
then, behold ! two eyes of light, a mouth, 
a nose — a Jack-o’-lantern came into the 
room. What a howl of delight went up ! 
Then the lights were turned on again, 
and there, on a table piled high with 
autumn leaves and branches, sat a squat, 
quaint figure — Ellen’s yellow pumpkin, 
cut to Jack-o’-lantern shape. And while 
“Jack” blinked and winked, the clock 
struck twelve. “Time for good children 
to be in bed,” said mother. So the party 
came to an end with a glad hurrah 
for the yellow pumpkin and a happy 
Hallowe’en. 


48 



THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 


V. HOW PHAETON DROVE THE SUN CHARIOT 

is the story of Phaeton. He was very young 
d very handsome, the son of the god Apollo and 
a mortal maiden. Every day Apollo drove his 
ariot of fire around the world. In the morning 
started from the east and by the time evening 
ne he had reached the extreme west. In this 
y his chariot, all blazing with light, gave the 
sun to the world during each day. 

Now, Phaeton lived with his mother, on the earth. He knew, 
however, that his father was one of the immortals. He boasted of 
this to his school-friends. They scoffed at him and bade him prove 
to them that what he said was true. Phaeton was very much wor- 
ried, so one day he went to his mother and asked her, “Am I not the 
son of an immortal?” She answered him, “Yes; the great god 
Apollo is your father.” “But,” said Phaeton, “what proof have I 
that this is so? The boys at school plague me, saying that I do not 
tell the truth. Is there no way by which I can show them that 
Apollo is really my father?” 

Then the mother of Phaeton told him to seek out his father and 
ask him to tell the truth of the matter. Thereupon, the young boy 
set out for the palace of the sun-god. After a long journey, which 
made him very weary, he came in sight of his father’s house. It was 
very wonderful — a great building of gold and jewels that sparkled 
like a million diamonds. It was set on a slight hill surrounded 
by great tropical trees and shrubs, and beautiful flowers bloomed 
everywhere. 



49 


Even as Phaeton came up to the palace, he found the light of it 
so great that he was almost blinded. Within the great hall he found 
the sun-god, robed in purple and seated on a high throne. Phaeton 
ran to him at once, and on his knees made supplication. “Oh, Apollo,” 
he cried; “Is it true that you are my father?” Apollo replied, “Yes, 
my boy, and I am proud of my son.” Then he embraced the lad and 
told him to make any wish he pleased and it would be granted. 

Now, Phaeton was very foolish; he thought only of the sensa- 
tion he would like to create among his schoolmates. Therefore, he 

begged Apollo that 
he might be per- 
mitted to drive the 
chariot of the sun 
for one day. At this 
request Apollo be- 
came very grave. It 
was the one thing 



PHAETON APPROACHES HIS FATHER’S PALACE 

that he had not dreamed of his son’s asking. He told the boy that 
he had asked something which it would be very hard for him to 
do. Never yet had any one, god or man, driven the sun chariot 
save Apollo himself. Not even Jupiter would have attempted the 
task. For the horses were very wild and the chariot was one blaze 
of fire — to drive it was a task that required not only the greatest 
strength but also the greatest self-control. However, Phaeton per- 
sisted in his wish; and his father, rather than break his word, at 
last consented. It was then growing dawn, so Apollo led his son 
out to the chariot. Here he ordered the horses harnessed; then 


50 



he rubbed Phaeton all over with something that would prevent him 
from being burned. He told the boy to hold the reins tightly and 
to keep to the middle course. In this way he hoped that a safe 
journey could be made. 

Up to the seat the handsome boy climbed. Bravely he waved 
good-bye to his father. Poor Phaeton ! Almost before the chariot 
started he began to grow afraid. The horses pranced madly ; it took 
all his strength to hold them; they realized that it was some one 
other than their master driving them. They went so fast that it 
seemed as if they flew. Far below, the world danced crazily away 
from them. Phaeton had to cling with all his might to the seat for 
fear he would fall off ; nor could he hold himself and guide the 
horses as well. Very soon the horses went as they wanted to, 
and then came disaster ; for they went too close to the earth. Where 
they touched a mountain peak it immediately was set on fire. Where 
they approached the earth, the fields dried up and the grain was 
withered. The trees were burned black all along the way. Mother 
Earth was terror-stricken. She cried out to Jupiter, “Why do you 
burn me? What have I done? Save me, king of the gods, save me !” 

Jupiter heard the cry and called the gods together. Apollo was 
with them and he had to explain what was happening. No one knew 
just how to stop it all. At last Jupiter hurled a thunderbolt, and the 
shock of it threw Phaeton from his seat. His body fell into a river 
below and was quickly carried away. The horses also were startled, 
and, knowing that their strange driver was gone, quieted down, and 
started for home more mildly. Apollo rescued them and the chariot 
before it was too late. 

Of Phaeton no one heard again. His young pride had led him 
to wish to do something for which he was entirely unfitted and his 
wilfulness prevented him from taking his father’s advice. In this 
way boys and girls defy older people and often suffer accordingly. 


O • 



51 


WHAT CAN WE 
LEARN ABOUT 
. THIS PICTURE? 

A RE these not two beautiful 
boys ? I wonder if you know 
"^who they are? The name 
of the taller one was Edward 
and he was Prince of Wales, son 
of the wdcked king of England, 
Edward IV. The smaller boy is 
Edward’s younger brother, who 
was known as the Duke of York. 

When the father of these boys 
died, after a long life of crime, 
the little Prince of Wales was 
proclaimed king. Up to this time 
the children had lived in the 
country, but now they were 
brought to London by the Duke 
of Gloucester, the brother of the 
dead king and the uncle of the 
boys. This uncle pretended to be 
very kind to his nephews, but in his heart he was determined to 
become king himself ; for if the two boys should die he would be the 
next heir to the throne. 

After the king came to London, the Duke of Gloucester gradu- 
ally began to take over all the government into his own hands. One 
day he told the little king that he was to have a new palace. He 
took him to the dark and ugly Tower of London — which was really 
a prison — and shut him up there. He pretended to the people that 
the prince was not all right, and that he, the duke, must be the 
“Protector” of both the king and the country. 

In the meantime, little Richard, the king’s brother, was with 
his mother. Now, the Duke of Gloucester compelled the queen to 
give up her youngest son too. Then he sent him to the Tower with 
Edward. Those were long days for the two boys. They had 
been used to play of all kinds, to horseback riding and walking in 
the woods about their country home. They grew very tired and very 
pale in the gray old Tower. More than that, they began to grow 
afraid, for they knew that their uncle hated them. 



THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER 
By Sir John Millais 


52 


Little by little, the people of England almost forgot their boy 
king. The duke grew more and more powerful. At last he was 
declared king. Then he went on a journey of triumph through the 
kingdom, and while he was away he sent orders to the governor of 
the Tower to kill the two boys. The governor — who loved the lads — 
would not obey, so the new king sent some one else to do the evil, 
deed. It is supposed that in the night, when the children slept, some 
one smothered them. Their bodies must have been hidden away, 
for they were never found. It was years before many of the people 
even knew that the boys were dead. 

The artist who painted the picture was Sir John Millais, an 
Englishman who lived in the nineteenth century. He imagined the 
picture, of course, for the little princes lived back in the fifteenth 
century. However, Sir John knew that they must have been rather 
lovable boys and his imagination pictured them as we now see them 
in this portrait. There is a sadness in the faces of the boys that 
seems to show that they had met with misfortune, and the whole 
painting carries with it an atmosphere of sorrow and shrinking. 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 

V. RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED 



[ANY centuries ago there lived a brave king in 
England. Just about that time there swept over 
the continent of Europe a great wave of religious 
enthusiasm. There appeared among the people a 
strange preacher, who called upon them to get 
up and go to Jerusalem, there to rescue the city 
for the Christians and to fight a Holy War with 
those who would not worship the Only and True God. 

As you know, Jerusalem was builded by the Jews. It was taken 
by the Romans hundreds of years later, and later still it fell into 
the hands of the Turks. Now it was to be captured and all its 
treasures given into the control of Christian peoples. 

Among the first to answer the call to a Holy War was Richard, 
King of England. He was a brave man and an unselfish man and 
he sold all that he possessed to raise money for his army. He was 
also daring and fearless, and he went forth to the war prepared to 
risk anything. 


53 


As a matter of fact, he did risk his kingdom. For he had a bad 
brother, John, who planned to make himself king in the absence of 
Richard. John did everything that he could, but the people loved 
Richard. The news that came of his wonderful deeds among the 
Crusaders — as those who went to the Holy Land were called — found 
the English people ready to worship their hero. When, presently, 
Richard decided to return to England, he was detained by the 
Emperor of Germany as he passed through that empire, and was 
held for a huge ransom. John did what he could to have the ransom 
increased, in order that his brother might not come back ; but their 
mother succeeded in raising the amount needed, the people being 
willing to pay all kinds of taxes for the sake of freeing Richard. It 
was, however, only for a little while that King Richard could remain 
at home. He was a warrior and he was always ready for battle. He 
won many conquests for his crown and at last died, hero that he 
was, on a battlefield. 



TStovember 


W INDS of November blovsr, 

Sun of the winter glow; 

The world may be gray, 

But we shall be gay. 

For now there comes Thanksgiving 
Day. 


In the farmyard near, 

The turkeys we hear. 

As they clamor for grain 
Falling ’round like rain. 

Poor turkeys! the purpose of fatten- 
ing is plain. 


But we will not forget 
When the feast is all set. 

That our heads must be bent 

And our hearts all intent 

On the goodness that Heaven has sent. 


54 



HOW THANKSGIVING DAY BEGAN 



JNCE there lived in England a very harsh king. He 
pretended to be exceedingly good and religious. He 
declared, however, that all the people in his king- 
dom must worship in his kind of church, and so 
he made many bitter enemies. For there were 
those in his kingdom who did not care for the 
things that were done in the king’s church and 
preferred to go to a church of their own. 

When the king learned that all his subjects were not obeying 
him, he sent out officers to arrest them. Many of them were thrown 
into prison and there suffered hardships of every kind. 

Just about this time there came news of a strange world over 
the sea. Already some people had gone to America — as the Ne\v 
World was called— to settle. Therefore, a number of the people, 
known as “Puritans,” who did not agree with the king, set sail on 
a little boat, “The Mayflower.” They knew that there they would be 
able to worship God as they pleased. 

The journey was long and very trying. Many of the Puritans 
were sick and all were sore at heart and discouraged. At last they 
reached America, and made a landing at a place they called 
Plymouth, on the coast of what is now New England. 



PURITAN CHILDREN 


55 



At once the men set about making shelters. They were very 
crude, of course; nothing but mud huts, in fact; but they served 
better than the cold ground. It was, however, an unfortunate time 
of the year, for autumn had arrived and the weather was cold and 
damp and generally unpleasant. The sun did not shine and the 
people had little food. 

The winter was especially hard on the women and children. The 
cold became more intense and the Indians were a constant danger. 
The men toiled outdoors and the women within, and so passed the 
slow months away. 

Then spring came, beautiful, sunshiny and promising. Now 
they could begin to plant. Now, too, the red men became a little 
more friendly. They realized that these people had not come to 
harm them. So the Indians showed them how to prepare the fields 
and sow the crops. It was a good summer ; things grew quickly and 
well and soon the land began to produce in plenty. They had great 
harvests, and when it came to facing another winter it was with a 
different feeling. It was now that they turned, with thanksgiving 
in their hearts, to the God who had been so good to them. In the 
long, hard winter they had prayed faithfully and hoped as well, and 
now the answer to their prayers was here. God had indeed showed 
them kindness. What could they do to show Him how grateful 
they were ? 

Some one finally proposed that they have a great Thanksgiving 
Day. So they set a particular day and made preparations. Wives 
and mothers cooked and baked ; nuts were gathered ; autumn leaves 
were brought together in large quantities. The Indians were invited 
to come and join them, and they, too, brought gifts — of fruit and 
venison and fish. It was a wonderful time, in which everybody had 
more than he and she could eat ; in which they all danced and frol- 
icked and played games. They were very happy, for their hearts 
were light and full of joy in things to come. Before the great thanks- 
giving meal they knelt down and offered prayers of thankfulness to 
Him who had helped and cared for them. For three days, instead 
of one, the feasting and rejoicing lasted. Then they put away their 
gay things and settled down to hard work, while the Indians went 
back to their own homes. 

So was Thanksgiving Day begun. From that time to this, one 
day each year is set aside to be called Thanksgiving Day and cele- 
brated as such. As the years go on and our country grows, we 
continue to have even greater things for which to thank God than 
the Pilgrims had and we should do it all with the same enthusiasm 
and grateful feeling that they showed on that first day. 


56 


HOW CHRISTMAS IS CELEBRATED 





was hundreds of years ago that the Great Star 
shone above the hills of Bethlehem. That was a 
land of cold, blue-black skies and biting winds ; but 
a wonderful warmth spread over the earth when 
the tiny Baby Jesus lay in the stable at the inn. 
Once each year since then there dawns a day in 
every land, when somewhere, somehow, some- 
body remembers and keeps sacred the birthday of the Christ. 

Christmas is a happy day, for when the little Lord Jesus was 
born he brought love and joy and the promise of a wonderful peace 
to come. Therefore, when Christmas is celebrated, it is with glad- 
ness in the hearts of all those who call themselves Christians. 

In different countries, however, people have different ways of 
showing their joy. Which means that in one country people keep 
Christmas in one way, while in some other land they keep it in 
another way. 

In ancient England there were many quaint and delightful 
Christmas customs, some of w^hich have come down to us. For 
instance, the day was observed with feasting; it was a day of song 
and general merrymaking. Just as the angels sang of “Peace on 
earth and good will to men” on that first Christmas day, so it was 
the custom in England to herald the day with the singing of 
Christmas carols. Boys and girls, men and women, would lift up 
their voices on the night before Christmas and sing of the wonderful 
Child whose birthday was now to be celebrated. Bells would toll 
forth the glad tidings, while in the great halls where the families of 
the noble gathered, the Christmas singers would come with their 
harps, and their sweet voices would send the echoes ringing as they 


57 



sang of the shepherds who first heard the new's of the coming of the 
little King, and of the Wise Men who saw the Star in the East and 
came to worship Him for whom the Star shone. 

From the Christmas carol singers came the “waits,” street 
singers who wandered about on Christmas Eve and sang under the 
windows. Often when the snow was on the ground and the wind 
was very bitter, their clear voices would ring through the town, and 
those warm in their houses would open the windows to listen; for 
this, too, was a way of telling that Christmas was here again. 

On Christmas morning all the people would go to church, and 
there would be the little manger, filled with straw and hay, and 



58 



sometimes there would be a cow, while in the midst of it all would 
lie a mother and child to show how it had all happened in reality 
those many, many years ago. 

In France, however, the people think less of the real meaning 
of Christmas and more of the fun and the feasting. 

It is from Germany that the idea of Christmas gifts first came. 
There, many weeks before the day, each member of the family may 
be found busy in odd moments making gifts for sisters and brothers, 
mothers and fathers, and cousins and uncles and aunts. The girls 
and the women sew and knit ; the men carve wood and make furni- 
ture and toys. It is in Germany that most of our toys have been 
made and from there have come the greater number of dolls and 
carts, horses and china, and all the other beautiful and wonderful 
things that appear under our Christmas trees. 

From Germany, too, came the idea of the Christmas tree and 
of Santa Claus. For the Germans brought in the beautiful fir trees 
and fastened all manner of shining and glittering things upon them. 
Wax tapers, lighted, appeared on the trees, and the gifts were given 
out by one member of the family. This member presently came to 
be known as Santa Claus; in fact, he represented the good old St. 
Nicholas, who is supposed to be the saint most interested in 
Christmas time. 

Our own American Christmas has become a day of gift-giving 
and feasting. Sometimes we seem to forget that the day has any 
significance other than as a day for fun and pleasant entertaining. 
It is, however, only out of hearts warm with love that the real spirit 
of giving will proceed ; and even through all the glitter and shine of 
the holiday season we see many little acts of kindness and tender- 
ness and generosity that prove to us that the Gift brought by the 
Babe of Bethlehem has never died, but has grown with the cen- 
turies until it influences the whole wide world and all the people. 

With each year some new country is added to those wherein 
Christmas is celebrated, and now we have Christmas in Japan, in 
China, in India, and even in Africa. The Chinese and the Japanese 
are beginning to have Christmas trees, and the little people in India 
are being taught the story of the Star. 



59 


THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 


VI. HOW PLUTO KIDNAPPED PROSERPINE 

NCE the world was troubled with terrible giants. 
Some of them had a hundred heads, and they did 
all kinds of cruel things to the people. Jupiter, the 
king of the gods, determined to capture them. He 
buried them under Mount yEtna, but they con- 
tinued to move around in such a way that the earth 
was always being rocked and swayed by them. 
One day the whole world seemed to shake so violently that 
Pluto, the god of the underworld, began to fear that his kingdom 
would be damaged. He at once ordered his great black horses 




PLUTO CARRIES PROSERPINE AWAY 


hitched to his chariot and, climbing in, he rode up to the surface of 
the earth through his own private passage. 

Now, as Pluto rode, Venus, the goddess of love, chanced to see 
him. Venus was angry with Pluto, because he would not fall in 
love with any woman. She called her son, the little Cupid, to her. 

“My son,” she said, “come, let fly one of your golden darts into 
the beard of the black Pluto. There is a pretty maiden on the earth, 


60 


Proserpine, who will not obey the goddess of love. Let fly a dart 
at her too, and we shall see what will happen.” 

Proserpine, you may know, was the daughter of the goddess 
Ceres, who looked after the flowers and the grain in the fields. At 
the very time that Venus was speaking this dainty maiden was at 
play in a valley filled with wild flowers, where she and her little 
friends were having a gay time. 

Cupid, of course, did as his mother told him. His dart struck 
Pluto square in the breast. At that very moment the king of the 
underworld passed the place where Proserpine was dancing and saw 
her at her prettiest. Without stopping to speak a word, Pluto 
took hold of the girl and, crying to his horses to run faster, carried 
her away. 

Of course, Proserpine cried for help and screamed with all her 
might, but it was of- no use. Pluto sent the horses flying and never 
stopped until he was once again safe in his own palace under 
the earth. 

The friends of the girl were naturally frightened. They at once 
hunted up Ceres. They could tell her nothing, however, but that 
Proserpine had been stolen away by a black-bearded man in a great 
chariot. 

Poor Ceres! She loved her daughter dearly. She set out at 
once to look for her. All over the earth she traveled, but no one 
could tell her anything about Proserpine. At last, in despair, Ceres 
began to blame the Earth. “Ungrateful Earth 1” she cried ; “I have 
given you grain in plenty. But you have robbed me of my child, 
and I will punish you!” 



THE GODDESS CERES 


61 


Then she caused a drought in the land and there were no more 
harvests. The poor farmers could not make the grain grow and 
it looked as if the people would starve. 

One day a nymph out of a fountain spoke to Ceres. 

“Dear mother of the fields,” she said, “not long ago I was down 
in the underworld. In the palace of Pluto I saw your daughter, who 
is now Pluto’s wife and queen.” 

Ceres then went to Jupiter and asked him to help her. The 
best that Jupiter could do was to promise that if Proserpine had 
taken no food while in the palace of Pluto, he would compel the king 
of the underworld to release her. He called Mercury to him and 
told him to go with this message to Pluto. Mercury went and Pluto 
consented to let Proserpine go. It seemed, however, that while she 
was there with him, Proserpine had eaten only one thing. That 
was a part of a pomegranate that Pluto had offered her when she 
refused to eat. Because of this it was arranged that Proserpine 
should pass part of her time with her mother in the upper world, 
and the other part of it with her husband in his kingdom. 

M T^e i5oi7g6 of a 

Dlii^d Tbef’ 

I N far-away Greece, many centuries ago, when 
there were no books to read, there were what 
might be called traveling poets. People 
would gather together in their living-halls, or sometimes in the public 
market-place, and would listen to these wanderers singing of the 
glories of Greek history, of the deeds of gods and heroes, and of the 
rise and fall of Troy with all its tragic events. 

These singers earned their living by their songs, for they de- 
pended upon what people would give them. 

The most important of these wandering poets about whom the 
world today knows anything was the Greek Homer. We have to 
guess a good deal about both the man and his life, for nobody has 
left any very definite information concerning him. We know, how- 
ever, that he was old when he sang his best songs -and that he 
was blind. 


62 


The two greatest poems in the world are supposed to have been 
composed by Homer. One of these is The Iliad, and the other is 
The Odtyssey. The Iliad tells the whole story of Troy and of the war 
between the Greek and Trojan heroes. The Odyssey gives the ad- 
ventures of Ulysses after the war was over. You remember that 
Ulysses was the Greek hero who thought of building the horse by 
means of which Troy was overcome. Because Ulysses did this, 
Neptune, the god of the sea, who loved the Trojans, made up his 
mind to punish him. Therefore, he caused the boat that Ulysses 
sailed in to be wrecked, and the hero and those with him were forced 
to wander for many years, here, there and everywhere, before they 
finally were permitted to reach their homes. 

The poet Homer is pictured to us as an old, bearded m-an, tall 
and gaunt and blind. He had to have some one to guide him when 
he walked, and often this would be a young man or a boy who loved 
to listen to his stories. When Homer stopped to recite his wonder- 
ful tales the people who heard him were breathless. All the patriotic 
feeling in them was stirred, and many a man went out to fight in 
battle stronger and braver because he had heard old Homer sing. 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 

VI. KING JOHN 

TH the death of Richard the Lion-hearted, his 
brother, the wicked John, became the King of 
England. The people in the land did not love 
John, for he had shown himself cruel and greedy 
and as the years went on he became worse instead 
of better. 

John wanted everything for himself. He was 
not interested in seeing his people prosper. He wished to add to his 
own wealth in every possible way and so he seized upon the property 
of his wealthy subjects and took it for his own. 

Among those who suffered because of King John’s greed was a 
man who was very rich. For some reason John determined to take 
from this man all that he possessed. The man who was so unjustly 
treated became very poor; he had not even a house to shelter 
him. You can imagine how he hated the king. At once he 
gathered about him a band of others who had also been badly 
treated, and they became thieves. He called himself “Robin Hood,” 
and he and his band refused to obey any of the laws of England. 



63 


They lived in the thickest parts of the forest and wore green suits 
and hats, so that they could not easily be seen. England was filled 
with deep woods in those days and no one could travel any distance 
without going through long stretches of forest land. Robin Hood 
and his men would lie in wait for any traveler who showed that he 
possessed wealth. They would then pounce upon him, taking away 
whatever he had, sometimes even making him a prisoner until he 
could get his family or friends to send a large sum of money to pay 
for their letting him go. The Robin Hood band was so clever that 
nobody could catch any one of them. They became a terror in the 
country, and at last the people appealed to King John to capture and 
get rid of them. The king, however, was helpless, for he could no 
more find and capture these men than could any one else. 

In every way it seemed King John got into trouble. He 
appointed a man to be Archbishop of Canterbury who was not 
approved by the Pope at Rome. The Pope sent another man to take 
his place. John refused to obey the Pope’s command and the orders 
were sent that every church in England should be closed and no 
services held'until the king obeyed. John laughed and thought that 
the orders would never be carried out. They were, and the people 
blamed the king. 

At last, things grew to be so bad that the people got together 
and determined that if the king would not be more reasonable they 
would declare war upon him. Now John began to see that he had 
gone too far. He wrote a paper, in which he pledged himself to do 
very differently. He made many fine promises. He called the paper 
“King John’s Charter.” In history this document is known as 
“Magna Charta.” On it the English people have based their laws 
and on it was laid the foundation of English liberty. 

It is doubtful if King John ever meant to live up to his charter. 
Fortunately, he died before it could be put to the test, and, on the 
whole, his subjects were glad to be rid of him. 



64 


THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 

VII. ARACHNE THE WEAVER 


INERVA, you will remember, was one of the daugh- 
ters of the god Jupiter. Now, Minerva liked to 
believe that she could do many wonderful things. 
She was very proud of her ability, for instance, to 
weave beautiful fabrics and she did not wish to 
think that any one else could do this so well. 

There was, however, among the people on 
the earth, a certain charming young girl. Her name was Arachne, 
and she was known throughout Greece for the fineness of her needle- 
work and the skill with which she could manage a shuttle. The 
webs that she spun were light as the air and wonderful as the rain- 
bow in their colors. Arachne, too, was proud of her talents. 

It was not wise, you know, to displease any of the gods or god- 
desses. Mortals were not expected to be as clever as the gods. It 
was therefore very foolish of the girl Arachne to boast of her powers 
to spin. That was what she did, however, and Minerva heard about 
it. In fact, when Arachne’s friends told her that the goddess 
Minerva was a wonderful spinner, Arachne laughed and declared 
that not Minerva herself could spin so beautifully as she. 

Thereupon Minerva determined to put Arachne to the test. She 
sent a messenger to the girl. “Will you enter a spinning contest 
with the goddess Minerva T* Arachne was asked. 

“With Minerva, or with any one else,” was the boastful reply. 

At this Minerva was indeed angry, but she did not want to be 
too hard on Arachne. She therefore disguised herself as an old 
woman and went to visit the young spinner. She watched her at her 



65 



work and was amazed at her skill. It was a pity, she thought, to 
bring misfortune upon this beautiful child. She spoke to Arachne 
regarding the contest with Minerva. She begged her not to try to 
excel the goddess in spinning. “Try any mortal,” she pleaded, “but 
do not try to rival a goddess.” 

When people are young, however, they are daring, and Arachne 
would not listen to reason. 

“If I do better work than Minerva,” she said, “I will take the 
consequences. I do not need your advice. Let Minerva come and 
we shall see which is the better spinner.” 



ARACHNE AT WORK 


At that Minerva dropped her disguise and responded: “So be 
it. Minerva is here.” 

Arachne was now a little frightened, for she realized that she 
had not spoken respectfully to the goddess. She persisted, however, 
in her determination to surpass Minerva. 

Then the contest began. Each sat before her loom and arranged 
the threads. A group of nymphs, attendants upon the goddess, 
stood around watching. 

Minerva wove a series of pictures that showed her in various 
struggles with Neptune, god of the sea. Then she pictured herself 
punishing those mortals who had dared to defy her. She made her 


66 


' work an object-lesson to the girl who sat beside her, and who would 
doubtless suffer through her anxiety to prove herself the better 
spinner of the two. 

The warnings of Minerva had no effect upon Arachne. She 
went on weaving. Her piece of work showed the gods doing evil 
things: it expressed Arachne’s contempt for the immortals. She 
could have chosen nothing more dangerous to do. She was so 
beautiful, however, sitting at her loom, and the work she wrought 
was so wonderful, that even the goddess herself could not help 
admiring her. 

Notwithstanding, the moment came when Minerva could bear 
with the girl’s defiance no longer. She went over to Arachne’s loom 
and tore away the beautiful web. Then she said to Arachne : “You 
have tried to put the gods to shame. Now you shall be punished !” 

At that she waved her hand and suddenly Arachne drooped. A 
terrible remorse seemed to fill her; she was an object of shame. 
With a little cry, she tied herself to the loom and hung there. Very 
soon she was dead. Minerva felt sorry for her when she saw her 
thus helpless. She determined to transform her into something liv- 
ing. She waved her hand again over the dead girl, and Arachne’s 
hair fell away. Her body seemed to shrivel and her hands and feet 
became long legs. She was a spider ! In this way Minerva caused 
Arachne to live again in a different form and to go on spinning. All 
through the ages since, the spider has woven its webs and has 
hung by the thread with which it has spun. 



67 





[AR away in the North, at the very top of the earth, 
live the little Eskimo people. It is a world of ice 
and snow — a land where it is nearly always 
winter. For one month in every year the sun 
shines, and then many beautiful flowers bloom. 
The sky at this time is filled with wonderful and 
ever-changing colors, but for the rest of the year 
everything is as dark as if it were night. 

The people who live in this Northland belong to the yellow race, 
like the Indians, the Chinese and the Japanese. They are called 
Eskimos and they are very tiny. They dress in the skins of animals, 
chiefly the seal and the Polar bear. In fact, they wear all the time 
rich fur stuffs which it would cost us many dollars to buy. 

In this land of ice and snow, there is the graceful reindeer. We 
think of Santa Claus, with his reindeer sleigh, coming out of this 
wintry, wonderful, white world. It is also the home of the Eskimo 
dog, that sure-footed runner, which bears the long sleds over great 
stretches of ice when men travel through the far North. 

The Eskimo children are born and live in huts of frozen snow. 
One small opening makes the door, and a hole in the top lets out the 
smoke from the fire that warms them and cooks for them. Some- 
times there is a window in the hut, with oiled paper instead of glass 
set in to give a bit of light — when there is any. 


68 


Often two or three huts are connected with each other by means 
of snow passages. These passages are useful when the people are 
“snowed up” in a great storm. 

The fathers of the baby Eskimos go forth in the best weather 
and kill animals for food. They cut holes in the ice and catch fish. 
The mothers cook and sew and do rare beadwork, quite as fine as 
much that is done by our own Indians. There is also a great 
deal of carving and toymaking done among the Eskimos. This is 
because they must remain indoors so much. 

However, the Eskimo children are sturdy, stout little people, 
who have a great deal of fun in their snow and ice homes. 



JANUARY 

T ANUARY brings us snow. 

Ice and skating — to and fro 
Merrily the children go. 

January brings us cold. 

Jack Frost grows unduly bold ; 

Watch his wonders now unfold. 

January brings us cheer. 

Promise of a glad new year ; 

Ring out the bells both loud and clear, 
A bright day-dawn is surely here! 


69 


A PICTURE STORY 


FINDING THE BODY OF HAROLD 

{J see here a battlefield at night. There has just 
ended a terrible struggle. William, Duke of 
Normandy, has fought with the English Harold 
for possession of the crown of England. 

Harold was the son of Earl Godwin, advisor 
to Edward the Confessor. Edward arranged to 
make Harold his successor. During a sea trip, 
however, Harold was caught in a storm and was cast upon the coast 
of Normandy. Duke William made a prisoner of him and would not 
let him go until Harold had promised to give up all claim to the 
English throne. William himself wanted to rule England and was 
determined to do so. 

Harold went home, and King Edward died. Harold was at 
once proclaimed king. Immediately Duke William prepared to 
invade England. He landed there in September, 1066. On the 
fourteenth of October, his army met the forces of Harold on the 
field of Hastings. There, after numerous repulses, William suc- 
ceeded in defeating Harold. In fact, the English king was among 
the first to fall when the Norman spearmen began to throw their 
great iron spears. 

Hours after the battle was over and William was indeed the 
“Conqueror,” the priests, who loved Harold, went out to find his 
body. Somewhere among the dead and wounded they knew he must 
be. With lighted torches they searched, but could not find him. 

At last came the queen, Editha, sister of Harold and the wife 
of Edward the Confessor. She it was who first saw the body of 
the king stretched cold in death. Tenderly her followers bore it 
away for burial, but the heart of the good queen broke with its 
sorrow. 




70 



FINDING THE BODY OF HAROLD 
BY \V. HILTOX 


71 



VII. ROBERT THE BRUCE 

NGLAND and Scotland were not always united as 
they are now. There were Scotch kings as well 



E ‘ljW as English kings. The two countries were often 
^ at war with one another. 


One of the best known of the Scotch kings was 
Robert, called Robert the Bruce. Now, Bruce 
was a brave man and a good soldier. When the 


King of England determined to conquer Scotland and to drive Bruce 
off the throne and out of the country. King Robert gathered 
together a great army and courageously went forth against the 
English. Six times he met the enemy and six times his army was 
driven back. For England was the stronger and larger kingdom 
and had more men who could fight. 

After the last defeat King Robert became very discouraged. 
He seemed no longer able to hold his army together. Little by little 
the men scattered or deserted, and Bruce himself was forced to go 
into hiding or to give himself up to the English. He chose to hide, 
in order that he might have a chance to think things over. 

For days and weeks he lived in the forest, taking refuge in 
whatever he came upon. Now it was a cave in the deep woods; now 
a deserted farmhouse ; in sunshine or in rain, he was forced to tramp 
along, or to lie down in some out-of-the-way spot to snatch what 
rest he could. 

At last he grew weary in body and soul. He was so tired that 
he felt as if he must give himself up to the enemy. 

One day he sought shelter from a storm in an old barn. It was 
a dreary day ; as he lay in a corner of the broken-down building, he 
could hear the patter, patter of the rain on the roof. He was wet 


72 



and cold and out of heart. The whole world seemed bleak and com- 
fortless. 

Suddenly his attention was attracted to a spider weaving her 
web up on one of the beams in the roof. She was a careful little 
worker: she seemed to think out each movement. Bruce became 
absorbed in the method she took to gain her end. Then he noticed 
that she was trying to fling her thread from one beam to another. 
Six times she tried and each time she fell short of the distance, her 
thread not being long enough. 

“Poor little spider!” the king said; “she too knows what it 
means to fail.” 

The spider, however, did not give up. She went back and began 
to spin once more. Then she made ready to throw the line to the 
other beam. By now the king was intensely interested. Would 
the thread reach the seventh time? Yes, she threw out the end; it 
was long enough ; it caught on the beam and she swung over to make 
it fast there. 

Then the king rose up with a new purpose in his heart. “If 
that little spider can succeed by trying, in spite of many failures, 
surely, I, the king, must keep up my courage and try again.” This 
was what the Bruce said to himself. 

Once more he called out his men. His new resolution was felt 
by the people and they flocked to his bidding. 

After some preparation, the Scots met the English for the sev- 
enth time on the battlefleld. A great battle was fought. Bruce was 
the inspiration of it all; his hope and his energy had put fresh life 
into his army. 

The battle came to an end with Scotland victorious. The 
seventh “try” had brought success. Even as the spider had gone on 
in the face of failure, so Robert the Bruce had fought his way to 
victory in spite of many setbacks. It was a wonderful lesson that 
the king had learned in the old barn. It brought his country peace 
for many long years. 



73 


"PLUTARCH’S LIVES” for BOYS AND GIRLS 


I. ROMULUS 

HEN Troy fell, there was among the Greeks a man 
named ^neas. He had a long and hard trip back 
to Greece; in fact, he never reached Greece, but 
went instead to Italy, where his children became 
the rulers of a kingdom which he founded there. 

Years went by and the kingdom grew. New 
kings reigned and died there. At last came 
Numitor, whose daughter Rhea became the wife of the god of war, 
Mars. 

Numitor was deposed, however, by a certain powerful enemy, 
and the twin sons of Rhea and Mars, heirs to the kingdom, were cast 



THE WOLF FINDS ROMULUS AND REMUS 


into the forest by the new king and were left to die there. A she- 
wolf heard their crying and went to them. It is supposed that she 
took care of them as she might have taken care of her own offspring. 
At all events, they grew up to be fine, healthy boys ; and a shepherd, 
finding them in the woods, taught them all that he himself knew. 

When Romulus and Remus grew old enough to learn who they 
really were, they went out to fight the king who had deposed their 
grandfather. They were victorious and gave back the kingdom to 
Numitor. 

Then it was that Romulus decided to found a city. He selected 
a place where there were seven hills. This city became Rome, the 
city “set on seven hills,” the most famous city in all the world. 



74 


Romulus and Remus quarreled after Rome was begun. The 
story goes that Remus made fun of the wall that his brother had 
built about the city-to-be. He jumped over it to show how little 
he thought of its significance. The safety of the city was a point 
of great importance with Romulus, and when he found that his 
brother thought so little of his wall he grew so angry with Remus 
he killed him. 

After that Romulus ruled the city as the first king. He be- 
came entangled in a war with a neighboring kingdom, whose people 
were known as the Sabines, but after a while the differences be- 
tween Romulus and the Sabine king were settled and the two 
reigned as joint kings of the city of Rome. 

It is to Romulus that Rome is said to owe much of her later 
glory. He is supposed to have established the basis for her laws 
and government, and to have begun the building up of her mili- 
tary power. He reigned for thirty-seven years. The legend says 
that he disappeared suddenly while reviewing his soldiers. A 
thunder-storm came up, and in the midst of its fury the king was 
caught up into the air and was never seen or heard of again. 

We do not regard Romulus as one of the heroes of the ancient 
world. He was, in reality, a very wicked man and no boy of courage 
can admire him. 



75 







B etty and Bob had been promised 
a trip to the country during the 
Christmas holidays. So two 
days after Christmas, when the excite- 
ment of turkey dinners and presents 
had almost worn away, they made ready 
to go. 

Mrs. Meredith took them for a half- 
hour ride in the train, and then at a tiny 
little country station they got off and 
started to walk. First, they reached 
the “general store,” outside of which 
several farmers were stamping up and 
down, their feet wrapped in potato bags 
to protect them from the frost. The 
store looked so interesting that Bob 
wanted to go in, so, in quest of a few 
candies, they entered. “Pr’tty cold 
weather, litt’l feller, I guess ?” asked the 
storekeeper of Bob. “Looks ter me ’sif 
a storm’s pr’tty nigh due.” 

“Oh! do you think so?” exclaimed 
Mrs. Meredith. “We are planning to 
take a long walk.” 

“Wa’ll, ma’am, I reckon as how ye kin 
git back afore it comes along, if ye’ll 
hurry up a mite. Ye’re safe fer a couple 
o’ hours, I guess.” 




W/ 


76 





/ 


Betty and Bob, with their mother, 
hurried away. Walking for a while, 
they soon had passed by all the many 
farmhouses in the “town part,” and 
came out along a country road that did 
not seem to be used much for traveling. 
It was early in the afternoon and the 
sun, while not smiling his brightest, 
appeared from behind the white clouds 
every now and then and almost blinded 
them. Everywhere the trees were bare. 
Despite this, they rose majestically and 
stretched long arms against the sky. 
Here and there an icicle hung loosely 
from the limb of a tree; and as they 
passed the fences, Betty delighted in 
breaking off the little ones that clung all 
in rows. The fields looked gray and 
dismal. All the green grass of a few 
months before had disappeared and in 
its place was brown, dull-colored stub- 
ble, sprinkled here and there with a thin 
coat of frost. 

How good it felt in the fresh air ! As 
they walked along they drew in long, 
deep breaths of it. It was cold, but 
brisk walking made them forget this, 
and they really felt cozy and warm. 

Then all at once the sun seemed to run 
away from them. This time he did not 
come out to play “peek-a-boo,” but 




77 







stayed in altogether. The clouds grew 
heavier and heavier and the air became 
chilly and damp. “I’m afraid that old 
farmer was right,” said Mrs. Meredith. 
“We must hurry for the train.” 

So they hastened a bit. After walk- 
ing for some time, however, Mrs. Mere- 
dith suddenly stopped short. “I am sure 
we are going the wrong way,” she said ; 
“I do not remember passing that field 
covered with fertilizer.” All three 
looked anxiously around in search of 
some familiar landmark, but there was 
none. Where was the station? Even 
now, a few flakes of snow were falling, 
and they were all three becoming cold. 

“Well, we cannot stand still,” said 
their mother. “Perhaps we will come to 
a farmhouse and be able to get a lift.” 
But they walked on and on without find- 
ing a trace of any living thing. The 
snow was now falling thick and fast, 
and it was hard to walk without over- 
shoes. Betty was quite frightened and 
began to cry, but Bob cheered her up 
and said, “Come, buck up, sis! Don’t 
be a baby. We’ll soon find some place 
to stop.” And on they went. 

Mrs. Meredith was plainly worried, 
for she saw that Betty, who was not 
very strong, was beginning to give out, 



my! 



78 



and Bob was too young to go alone to 
hunt for a place of shelter. Then came 
a sudden gust of wind that threw Betty 
down. Bob helped her up, but she could 
no longer pretend to be brave and she 
was frankly crying. It was then that 
Bob discovered a shelter. It was noth- 
ing but an abandoned barn, yet it was 
a protection ; so in they went. The snow 
was now almost blinding in its fury, p 
Suddenly there was the sound of a 
strange voice and the pounding of 
horses’ hoofs. “Keerful, Bill; keep ’er 
up, old scout! We’re ’most there, now.” 

Bob ran to the door and saw an ap- 
proaching wagon. With difficulty, he 
succeeded in making the farmer under- 
stand their troubles, but at last the 
three of them were helped into the old 
cart, which was nearly at its journey’s 
end. A short ride and they had reached 
the farmhouse. As they got off, the 
door was opened, and a motherly woman 
called out, “Caught in the storm, too?” 

Poor Betty was in a pretty scared state, 
so they helped her first, rubbing her 
hands and giving her warm milk to 
drink. Then the farmer’s wife made a f 
good, hot country supper for all of them. | 

There was only one thing that both- 
ered Mrs. Meredith, and that was how j ' 



Ml 


79 




80 



THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 

VIII. CADMUS THE DRAGON SLAYER 

GENOR, King of Phoenicia, a small country in 
Asia, had a beautiful young daughter, called 
Europa. One day, however, Jupiter, the king of 
the gods, decided that he loved Europa. Where- 
upon he turned himself into a great white bull, and, 
descending on Agenor’s kingdom, stole the king’s 
fair daughter and carried her away on his back. 

Naturally, Agenor was very angry. At once he commanded 
his stalwart son, Cadmus, to go out in search of his sister and 
forbade him to return home without her. 

Cadmus set forth, and wandered the whole world over. Of his 
sister he found no trace and finally he became greatly discouraged. 

Not daring to return home and confess his failure, the young 
man besought the advice of the god Apollo. The oracle of Apollo 
told him to go on as he was going and presently he would see a 
cow grazing in a field. He should follow this cow wherever she 
went and on the spot where she stopped he should build a city. 
The name of the city should be Thebes. 

Cadmus started away, and, sure enough, after a little while, 
he saw a cow. He followed her, and some distance away she 
stopped in the midst of a broad plain. Here she lifted up her head 
and sent forth great cries. Cadmus knew then that this was to 
be the place for the city. 

In those days it was the custom to make an offering to the 
gods before undertaking any kind of hard task. Cadmus decided 
to offer Jupiter a gift of pure water. He sent his servants for it. 



81 


Now, not far away there was a clump of tall trees. In among 
the trees was a great cave, the entrance to which was covered over 
with thick vines and shrubbery. From somewhere beneath the 
cave there bubbled forth a tiny spring of the coolest, clearest water. 

The servants of Cadmus found this tiny spring and were 
about to draw their pitchers full from it, when suddenly they saw 
that the cave was inhabited. There, just within, lay a huge and 



CADMUS SLAYS THE DRAGON 


hideous monster, a creature of scales and fiery eyes, and a three- 
pronged tongue that moved between rows of great, long teeth. 

At sight of the men, the big creature twisted himself about. 
He stretched until he reached the highest limb of the tallest tree. 
Then he thrust out his tongue and his tail and killed those whom 
Cadmus had sent for the water. 

Cadmus, meanwhile, awaited the return of his people. When 
they did not come he went to look for them. He was horror- 
stricken to find them dead, and at once made up his mind to kill 
the dragon. 


82 


He must have seemed very small, however, when he stood up 
before the beast. Over his shoulder hung a lion’s skin ; in his hand 
he carried a javelin and a spear. Poor weapons were these against 
such heavy scales! 

However, Cadmus was possessed of a brave heart and a strong 
will. He picked up a stone and let it fly at the monster. The 
stone had no effect. 

Then he threw the javelin, and it must have touched a tender 
spot, for the dragon cried out in pain. 

His spear now was all that he had left. He stood back a little 
distance and took careful aim. Then he flung it hard at the beast. 
It was a long spear, and it pierced the head of the dragon and 
lodged in a tree trunk behind. 

Now the great creature was pinned fast and his life-blood 
was ebbing. 

Just then Cadmus heard a voice speaking. It said: “Cadmus, 
take the teeth of the dragon and sow them in the earth.” Cadmus 
pondered over this, but at last decided that a god had spoken. He 
therefore dug a deep furrow and in this he buried the big teeth. 

Suddenly the earth began to tremble. All along the top of 
the furrow spearheads appeared. After them came the heads of 
men and then the men themselves, until there seemed to be a whole 
army of them. At once they fell upon each other, fighting desper- 
ately. Here Cadmus thought to interfere, but they cried out to 
him: “Let us alone; do not come near us!” 

The battle raged until all but five were dead. These five 
agreed to stop fighting and to have peace. Then they offered them- 
selves to Cadmus to help build the city of Thebes. 

For a while Cadmus lived in the new city happily. He mar- 
ried Harmonia, and they had children. Mars, however, was angry 
with the hero for having killed the dragon, who was sacred to the 
war god; and Mars brought misfortune to the family of Cadmus, 
so that his children all died. 

After that Cadmus and his wife left Thebes. They passed 
the years in continued sorrow. At last, one day, Cadmus cried 
out: “If the gods so love the serpent, I would that I were one!” 
At once he began to change, and there, sure enough, he was trans- 
formed into a serpent! 

When Harmonia saw this, she, too, prayed to become a serpent. 
Her wish was at once granted, and so the two entered together 
upon a new existence. 


83 


AMERICAN 
/\ HEROES 


GEORGE WASHINGTON 

NCE, many years ago, when this 
broad land of ours was still peopled 
for the most part with red men, 
there was born in Virginia, on the banks 
j i of the Potomac River, a boy whose name 

/ 9 was George Washington. The day on 

^ which this boy was born was Febru- 

ary 22, 1782. 

As the years went on, the young 
Washington grew to be a strong, fine-look- 
ing lad. He loved his mother dearly, 
'obeyed his father as a good son should, and 
was known among all his friends as being 
unfailingly honest and truthful. He pro- 
gressed at school because he took pains to 
study his lessons and to behave himself. 

When he was still little more than a boy, he became a surveyor 
and went on a perilous trip into the mountain country. It was very 
lonely there, and great danger threatened from wild beasts and the 
Indians. He did his work so well, however, that he was splendidly 
rewarded by the man who employed him. 

All his life, I suppose, George Washington had wanted to be- 
come a soldier. Therefore, he joined the army, such as it was, and 
again he showed himself brave and dependable. 

During the war between the English colonists and the French 
and Indians, Washington was sent to the frontier. He acted as 
aide-de-camp to a foolish English general of whom you have all 
heard. General Braddock, who would not listen to the younger 
soldier’s advice; so that his company of men suffered a terrible 
defeat at the hands of the French and their Indian allies. 



84 


When the Revolutionary War became a serious matter, Wash- 
ington was given command of the American forces. You all know 
how he worked and suffered and sacrificed himself to win the great 
struggle that made our country free. Because of what Washington 
did in the Revolutionary War, we call him the “Father of His 
Country.” 

If you will look at the face of Washington at the beginning of 
this story, you will know why all good Americans admire this man. 
There are men in the world who command the respect of everybody 
— Washington was that kind of man. It is doubtful if people loved 
Washington, — that is, in an intimate way, — but they would have 
given their lives for him had he seemed to need the sacrifice. 

Everybody in the new, free, United States wanted George 
Washington to be the first president. Some of them thought that 
he ought to be king. 

Washington, however, knew that, after the bitfer war that had 
just thrown off a king’s oppressive powers, it would not be wise for 
America to start out as a monarchy. He consented to be president ; 
not only once, but a second time. He would not, though, take a third 
term, even when the people begged him to do so. He had fought 
his best; he had served his best as president, and he felt that he 
would like to go back to Virginia and live there with his family just 
as a plain country gentleman. In truth, he deserved to be able to 
do so. 

All the boys and girls and men and women who love their coun- 
try, and look back upon her past history with real pride, remember 
the birthday of George Washington when it comes around each 
twenty-second of February. 

We remember the day because it marks the anniversary of a 
great occasion. The day on which a great man is born is an im- 
portant day in history. There are certain men who seem to have 
been put into the world just to do the great deeds that must be done. 
George Washington seems to have been born in order that the land 
of America might be made free; in order that a wonderful country 
and nation might be started. What would Washington think now 
if he could come back and see what a mighty people this has 
grown to be! 

It is good to think that this great man was once a boy, just like 
the boys who will read this story. He liked to fish, to .climb trees, 
and, I do not doubt, to play ball. Perhaps he would march around 
and beat a drum, pretending that he was a soldier. Best of all, he 
was a good boy — not a mollycoddle, but a straight boy — honest and 
upright and dutiful. Boys who are straight all through become 


85 


straight men ; and it is this kind of man that the world needs, and 
this kind of man that the country wants, when some great trouble 
arises that requires wisdom and good judgment for its settlement. 





ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

HAT boy or girl does not know who Abraham 
Lincoln was? Of all the names of American 
heroes, none is so well-loved or so enthusiastically 
spoken about. Not even Washington himself can 
command so deep a respect, so universal an 
affection. 

Abraham Lincoln was born in a little shanty 
down in Kentucky, on February 12, 1809. His parents were poor; 
the boy grew up as a poor boy, with his own way to make. His 
people moved to Indiana when he was still very young, and here he 
went to a country school for a few months now and again. 

Washington was well-born and well-educated, as the son of an 
old Virginia family would be. There 
were money and property in the 
Washington family, and George in- 
herited some of this himself. All 
through his life, Washington was just 
a little the aristocrat. He held him- 
self a trifle above the average man. 

Not so was Lincoln. He be- 
longed, first, last and always, to “the 
common people.” His life was a hard 
one from the start, but he had ambi- 
tion. When he could not go to school 
as he wanted to, he read books at 
home, by the light of a wood Are. He 
read the Bible, the life of Washington, 

“Pilgrim’s Progress” and “Robinson 
Crusoe,” many times. He did prob- 
lems in mathematics on a wooden 
shovel, with charcoal, and so learned 
arithmetic. 

Finally, Lincoln managed, by hard work, to save enough money 
to become a lawyer. 

Every one who met Lincoln liked him. He had the quality of 
great-heartedness. He always wanted to help people. 



86 



By and by he was elected to the Legislature, and then to Con- 
gress. The next step was the Presidency, and he was elected on 
the Republican ticket in 1860. 

Then came the great and awful Civil War. Far-seeing and 
wise, Lincoln steered the way of the Union to victory. He declared 
the slaves free. The war came to an end with the people convinced 
that here was the greatest president the United States had had 
since Washington. 

Lincoln was elected a second time. Then, one night, as he 
sat in the theater, John Wilkes Booth, an actor, shot the president, 
and in a few days the great Lincoln was dead ! 

If ever a country mourned one it loved, America mourned 
Abraham Lincoln. 

It is a wonderful thing for any man to inspire so great an 
affection. Even today, Lincoln is very real to all of us. We speak 
his name and seem to see a tall, thin, dark man, with wrinkled face, 
but smiling mouth, and wonderful, kindly eyes that speak of real 
honesty, true-heartedness and a tender spirit. Here was a man 
who could not bear to see a woman cry, or a little child or an animal 
in any kind of trouble. Here was a man strong in body, great in 
mind, and very firm in his purpose to do right. Yet, whatever he 
did was done with a sweetness, almost a gentleness, that made every 
one love him. 

There are many lessons in the life of Lincoln for boys and girls. 
Let us remember these: Lincoln proves that a boy can make of 
himself anything that he wishes to be; he proves that truth and 
honesty and the will to do the right thing always make a life worth 
while. 

Lincoln never fought a battle as a soldier ; but he fought many 
great battles, just the same. He fought with his mind and his 
heart for his country’s freedom from a great sin, and he won the 
battle. 



87 



Sd.mtVklentine'5 if 

i^a.y a 


ACRED to all true lovers is the day known as 
Saint Valentine’s Day. On the fourteenth of 
February, each year, we put rfed hearts on our 
party tables and buy baby Cupids, while the young 
man sends his sweetheart a bunch of flowers, or 
a box of candy, or a letter that tells her of his love. 
Now, then, how did all this begin? 

Well, back in the old days of Rome, in something like the 
third century, there lived a kindly priest, known as Valentine. 
All the people loved him, and his ways with young folks were 
very tender. 

When Valentine died, on the fourteenth of February in the 
year two hundred and seventy, there were many to mourn his 
death. He soon came to be called Saint Valentine, and the anni- 
versary of his end was celebrated in a strange way. 

On that day the names of the young girls in Rome were 
written down and slipped into a public box. To this box came the 
young men of the city, and each drew out a name. The girl whose 
name appeared on the slip then became the promised bride of the 
man who had drawn it. 

So truly did the Romans believe in the power of Saint Valen- 
tine that they were sure that marriages made in this way must in 
every case be happy and wise. 

From Rome the custom of observing Saint Valentine’s Day 
came down to England. Here it took the form of a great festival, 
at which men and women chose each other by chance slips much 
as the Romans had done. Only, in this case, the choosing did not 
always mean marriage; rather, each young man made a holiday 
for the maiden who fell to his lot, whose “valentine” he was said 
to be. 

In the country districts of England the children get up with 
the dawn on Saint Valentine’s Day and go to call on the best- 



88 


known person in their village. He greets them with wreaths and 
lovers’ knots, which they wear as they march along singing: 


“Good-morrow to you, Valentine! 
Curl your locks as I do mine: 
Two before and three behind. 
Good-morrow to you, Valentine! 


Sometimes Saint Valentine’s Day gifts were very costly, but 
usually they were simply little remembrances expressing affection. 

It is also said that Saint Valentine’s Day comes in the time of 
the year when the birds are mating. This gives the day a real 
meaning for lovers everywhere. 

In our own land and time, the fourteenth of February is a day 
on which we send picture postcards to our friends, or some dainty 
gift of candy or flowers. For many the real significance of the 
occasion has been lost. But all of us like to know that our friends 
have a kind thought for us, while we ourselves wish those friends 
to know that our hearts are loyal to them. Therefore, we remember 
them on the day when Love is supposed to be the supreme ruler 
of affairs. 



LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 


VIII. THE BLACK PRINCE 


HIS story is about a prince who never became a king. He was 



the son of Edward HI, of England, and he lived in the middle 


of the fourteenth century. King Edward was a very ambi- 
tious man and wanted to conquer France. He gathered together a 
great army and invaded the kingdom across the Channel, fighting 
there for many years. 

The son of Edward showed himself to be a brave boy. When 
he was very young he went with his father’s forces into France and 
won his spurs at an age when most boys are still in school. He be- 
came known as the Black Prince, for he always dressed in black 
clothes. 


89 


The Black Prince was not only brave, but he was a real prince, 
every inch of him. While his father was cruel and unkind to people, 
the prince was the very reverse: he was kind and courteous and 
loved to help people who seemed in any way to need it. 

Once when the Black Prince went out to do battle v/ith the 
French, he had a brilliant victory and took the French king captive. 
This was his chance to show the enemy how badly they were beaten. 
The Black Prince, however, did not do that. He felt that because 
King John of France was a much older man than himself, he ought 
to treat him with every mark of respect. Also, he realized that the 
French king was a splendidly brave man, and he admired his cour- 
age. He was, it is true, a captive foe, but the prince did not wish 
him to feel himself too deeply humiliated. Therefore, when the 



THE BLACK PRINCE SERVES THE FRENCH KING 

French king was taken into the English quarters wounded, the 
prince came to him and would not let any one else look after him. 
He bathed the wound as tenderly as the king’s own brother might 
have done and bound it up, making his royal prisoner comfortable. 

Later, the king of the French was taken to England. There, in 
London, a great triumph was held. It was a jubilee to mark the vic- 
tory of the Black Prince over the French. In the midst of the 
parade the French king was carried in a chair. He was the captive ; 
it was his kingdom that had been taken ; he was a prisoner of the 
English people. Yet, right beside the chair of the defeated king 
there rode a noble figure, all in black. How the people cheered as 
he advanced ; how they loved this stalwart, brave prince ! The prince, 


90 


however, did not wear the air of a conqueror. He was concerned 
over the feelings that must be stirring in the breast of the man he 
had overcome. He was more anxious that King John should not feel 
too badly than he was that the people should acclaim him a hero. 

When King John was taken to the Tower of London, the Black 
Prince waited on him at the table, and made sure that he had every- 
thing that he wanted and that he was served as befitted his rank. 

All through his career the prince showed himself to be full of 
kindness as well as of courage, and it was because he was modest 
in spite of his many achievements that he was so wonderfully loved 
by all his people. It is doubtful if there ever lived an English king 
of whom the entire nation was so proud. At times he seemed more 
truly the king than his father; certainly, the kingdom as a whole 
looked up to him for guidance. 

The Black Prince fought many battles in the forty-six years of 
his life. As King Edward grew older, there were wicked men who 
made trouble at his court. The Black Prince took matters into his 
own hands and got rid of these people, who were taking a mean ad- 
vantage of a very old and weak man. Sickness, however, came to 
the strong soldier and he died before his father, after all. There- 
fore, he did not become king ; but when Edward III did die, a year 
later, the young son of the Black Prince was made king, and was 
known as Richard II. Richard was only a child, but when trouble 
arose among the people, he displayed his father’s courage by going 
right out to them and meeting them face to face in order to settle 
the dispute. 



91 




Poet 


VIRGIL 


of Rome 


OU know the story of the Greek poet, Homer, and his two 



great poems, “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey.” You are now 


to hear about another poet of ancient times, who wrote 
a poem that tells the story of the fall of Troy and the things that 
, happened to the Greek heroes after they had set sail for home. 

You remember that the great city of Rome was founded by 
Romulus, who was a descendant of a man named ^neas. ^neas 
was one of the Greeks who helped to conquer Troy, and you have 
heard that he wandered into many strange places after the Trojan 
War. He settled down at last in Italy and founded a small kingdom. 

Years later, Romulus succeeded to this kingdom and built the 
city of Rome. 

Rome grew to be greater and greater. Her soldiers went into 
every known part of the world and conquered it. The Roman 
Empire came to rule over all the surrounding countries, and its 
wealth was enormous. 

When Rome was a young city, it was the capital of a republic. 
But Julius Caesar, in the last years before the birth of Christ, 
became dictator; and his nephew, Caesar Augustus, was, a while 
later, crowned emperor. 

It was during the reign of Augustus that a young man of 
thirty-three, tall and thin, and delicate in health, left his little farm 
in the country and came to live in Rome. 

The name of this man was Virgil, and he was a poet. He 
was born in 70 B. C. ; and though his people were not rich, he had 
received a good education. He wrote several excellent poems and 
won the friendship of a wealthy Roman, who made him very popular 
in the big city among the people who counted. 

Virgil’s great ambition was to write a long poem that would 
celebrate the founding of Rome. He set to work when he was 
forty years old to do this. He called the poem “The ^neid,” and 
its central character was .iT^neas. He told how ^neas carried his 


92 


old father on his shoulders away from burning Troy, and took a 
ship that went everywhere but where he intended it to go. All the 
adventures that ^neas had are told about, until at last he reached 
Italy, and there stopped, deciding to build a new home for himself 
and his people. 

Virgil never had the chance to make the poem as complete as 
he wanted it to be; he did not have a chance to make it as fine as 
he had intended to do; for he suddenly became very ill, and died. 
Before his death he begged his friends to burn “The ^T^neid,” 
because he did not think it good enough to be given to the world. 
Fortunately, his friends saw how splendid it really was and they 
took the best possible care of it. 

“The yEneid” is written in Latin, but the English poet Dryden 
has put it into beautiful English. Many other people, of course, 
have written translations of it, but none are so satisfactory as 
Dryden’s. 

The people who knew Virgil remembered him as being very 
modest and retiring. He was always quiet and thoughtful. He 
worked hard because he loved his work, and he has come down to 
us as the very greatest of the, many celebrated poets who belonged 
to the mighty queen city of Rome. 






9.1 


A PICTURE STORY 



THE DEATH OF NELSON 

BY ERNEST SLINGENEYER 



ERE is a picture that tells the story of how a 
brave man died. The man was Horatio Nelson, 
and he was an admiral in the British navy. 

Nelson was born in England, in 1758. His 
father was a country minister and did not have 
much money. When Horatio was twelve years 
old he went away to sea. When he was twenty- 
one he became a captain in the Royal Navy. 

The greatest enemy that England had when Nelson was still 
a young man was the French emperor, Napoleon. Napoleon had 
conquered so much of Europe that England decided that he must 
be checked. Therefore, she sent out her ships, as well as her 
armies, to meet in battle the great French general and king. 

The fleets held by Napoleon were in the Mediterranean Sea. 
They were both Spanish and French. On St. Valentine’s Day, in 
1797, the English won a great victory, and Nelson was the hero 
who did the most splendid deeds of all. 


94 


After that, Nelson became better and better known for his 
courage and daring. In 1805 the great battle off Cape Trafalgar 
was fought between Napoleon's French and Spanish ships and the 
Mediterranean fleet of England. Lord Nelson, as he was now 
called, was in command. His ship was “The Victory.” Before 
the battle began he went down into his cabin, and on his knees 
wrote a beautiful prayer. Then he put up a signal that has 
become famous. It read: “England expects every man this day 
to do his duty.” 

That must have been a glorious battle! In the midst of the 
firing, when the smoke was thick all around, a bullet hit Lord 
Nelson. In the picture you see him falling. Captain Hardy is 
one of the men who is holding him. On all sides the battle was 
going on, but Nelson knew that he was dying. He said to Hardy 
and his doctor: “They have done for me at last!” He had been 
shot through the back. 

With his last breath he asked: “How goes the day?” When 
the captain told him that the English were winning, he smiled. 
“Thank God,” he said; “I have done my duty.” Then he sank 
down on the deck of the ship and died. 

All England mourned Lord Nelson. A great funeral was 
held and he was buried in Westminster Abbey. 

Strangely enough. Nelson was a very little man, thin and 
sickly-looking. Early in life he lost one eye, and later one of his 
arms vvas shot off. But when he was a tiny boy, some one asked 
him if he were not afraid of something. 

When he heard the word “fear,” he replied: “Fear! — what 
is that? I never saw it!” 

No; Nelson did not know fear. But he did know his duty, and 
he did it nobly. 



95 



A BIRD STORY 

A LITTLE bird sat in a big elm-tree ; 

She chirped to the world with an air of 
glee; 

She chirped till she brought to her own little 
bough 

Another small bird, who his love did avow. 

Then the first little bird grew strangely shy ; 
She looked as if she wanted to fly 
Far away from the fat little bird by her side, 
Who so very much wanted her for his bride. 

But while she waited to make up her mind, 

A fairy flew out from the tree behind 
And perched on the bough between the two ; 
“Fll tell you,” she said to them, “just what to 
do: 

“There’s a wonderful fork at the top of the 
tree. 

I’ll show it to you if you’ll come with me ; 

If you’d go there and build a nice little nest. 

You could let Mother Nature take care of the 
rest.” 

Then the first little bird sang a brave little note, 
The other bird puffed out his feathery coat; 
They thanked the fairy for being so kind. 

And flew away the nest-nook to find. 

The fairy came back when the woods were 
green. 

She made her way through the leafy screen 
To the old elm’s top ; — and guess what she found 
Tucked away in a nest all cosy and round? 

Why, six little birdlings covered with down, 
Snuggling down deep ’mong the leaves of 
brown ; 

While a chirp from a bough of the tree near by. 
Proved the mother-bird keeping a watchful eye. 














96 


THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 

IX. PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA 

E ancient Greeks had a very queer way of ac- 
counting for the beginning of the world. They 
believed that at one time, when the gods reigned 
supreme, the entire earth was blended together. 
There was no sea, no earth, no heaven, but the 
whole formed one mass, which they called 
“Chaos.” 

At last, finding that such a condition was unsatisfactory, it 
was decided that there should be a great change. The earth and 
sea were separated from each other, and the heaven was separated 
from both earth and sea. The fiery part, being lighter, flew up 
and formed the sky. The more solid part took the lower plane; 
while the sea sank still lower and served to hold up the earth. 
Then one of the gods helped matters along by making gulfs and 
bays, by raising mountains and cutting out valleys. Now the 
stars appeared in the sky and fish were seen in the waters, while 
another god created the animals and placed them upon the earth. 

Still, something else was needed. It was decided that man, a 
being greater than any animal, should be made. Long before real 
men were created to live upon the earth, a gigantic race, called 
the Titans, existed. 

Among the greatest of the Titans were Prometheus and 
his brother, Epimetheus. To Prometheus was assigned the task 
of making the first man. Prometheus took some earth, mixed it 
with water and formed a man, making him look as much like the 
gods as possible. He made him straight and to stand upright. 
Instead of having his face turn downward to look at the earth, 



97 


he raised it toward heaven and the stars. Of course, it 
became necessary to give man certain things that would protect 
him and make it possible for him to live. Epimetheus was chosen 
to give out the gifts, with Prometheus to overlook the work and 
see that everything was done rightly. Epimetheus gave to the 
animals various characteristics that would be of great benefit to 
them. These were courage and strength, swiftness, wisdom and 



PANDORA LIFTS THE LID OF THE JAR 

endurance. To some he gave wings; to others, claws; and to 
others, hard, shell coverings. Man, being the most important, was 
left until the last, that all possible attention might be given to him. 
Epimetheus, however, was not very wise ; for he gave out all of the 
virtues from his enormous store to the wild animals and forgot 
to lay aside any for the new man. Not knowing what to do, 
he consulted Prometheus. The latter went up to heaven and lighted 


98 



PROMETHEUS CHAINED TO THE ROCK 


his torch with fire from Apollo’s chariot. This he brought down 
and gave to man. No longer was man helpless. He now ruled the 
earth ; for with fire he was able to forge weapons and beat down the- 
beasts, his enemies. Then, too, he could warm his home and cook 
his food. 

Jupiter, from his throne on Mount Olympus, saw a fire upon 
the earth and asked the meaning of it. When he heard about it, 
he was greatly angered and called the gods together. It was 
decided to create a new being, woman, as a punishment to man 
for accepting the gifts of the Titans. Woman was made in heaven, 
and all the gods and goddesses eagerly brought out their gifts for 
her. Venus gave her beauty. Mercury gave her persuasion, and 
Apollo gave her music. Because of her unusual and many gifts 
they named her Pandora, which is a Greek word meaning “all- 
gifted.” 

After she was entirely finished, woman was sent dowm to earth 
to the Titans. Prometheus and his brother were greatly enchanted 
with her exceptional beauty, and eagerly set about making a home 
for her with them. 

It so happened that in the house of Epimetheus there was a 
jar full of all kinds of harmful things, which Epimetheus had locked 
away because he knew that they would be a hindrance and not a 
help to man. 

Pandora had not been in the house many days before she dis- 
covered the strange-looking jar, and immediately wanted to know 
what was in it. One day, while no one was at home, her curiosity 
got the better of her and she was tempted to disobey the warning 


99 



given her by Epimetheus never to ‘open the jar. She slipped off 
the cover and peeped in. As she did so, out came hundreds of 
plagues for poor man — all kinds of bodily diseases ; envy, war, spite 
and revenge; and many, many more. These horrid things lost no 
time in getting away and scattering themselves far and wide. 

Pandora grew greatly afraid when she saw what she had 
done. She hurriedly replaced the lid, but it was too late. The 
ugly monsters were only too anxious to be free and lost no oppor- 
tunity to scatter. However, far down in the bottom of the jar 
lay one poor little creature, all alone. Who do you think it was? 
It was Hope — very tiny, but very strong. The Greeks say that 
this is the reason why, when all kinds of evil things are abroad, 
Hope still stays with us. 

Jupiter had a special penalty for Prometheus to pay because he 
had stolen the fire from heaven. The king of the gods ordered the 
greatest of the Titans chained to an immense rock in the wilder- 
ness. Here a vulture was sent each day to torture him. The 
Greek poets have made wonderful plays out of this part of the 
story. It was a terrible punishment to Prometheus, but Jupiter 
could be cruel as well as kind and could punish people in many 
unheard-of ways. 


T)o ^ou 
’^ou could drd,w 

Mr. Mafc^ 

Hd-rc 
r 



100 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 

IX. HENRY THE EIGHTH 

I T was the year 1509 in England. There had been seven kings 
called Henry, and now the eighth Henry came to the throne. 
This young man was good-looking, intelligent and capable. 
He spoke a great variety of languages, had written books, and 
was an expert tennis player and all-around athlete. Of all the 
kings of England, this one began his career with the most promise 
of becoming a wise and good ruler. 

Henry, however, did what a great many men have done when 
they have been placed in positions of authority. He grew selfish 
and hard, even cruel. He did not stop at anything to get his own 
way, whether that way was right or whether it was wrong. 



HENRY VIII AND ANNE BOLEYN 


The older brother of Henry had married a Spanish princess, 
Catherine. This brother died, and it was thought best that Henry 
should marry his sister-in-law. As a matter of fact, they lived 
together happily for many years and had a number of children. 
All of these died except one daughter, Mary. 

Then a sad thing happened. The king saw a very attractive 
young woman among those who waited on the queen. She was 
Anne Boleyn, the daughter of a nobleman. Henry decided that he 
would like to marry Anne. 

This was almost out of the question. Still, Henry had a great 
friend, who was strong in the Church. This was Cardinal Wolsey. 
Henry persuaded Wolsey to take the matter up with the Pope at 


101 


Rome and have his marriage with the queen declared illegal. The 
Pope refused Wolsey’s request, so Henry decided to take his own 
way in the matter. 

That way was to make England Protestant instead of Catholic. 
In Germany a man by the name of Martin Luther had defied the 
Pope and had started a new church. Henry thought that he would 
now have a new church in England and he could then do as he 
pleased. 

After that he divorced Queen Catherine and married Anne 
Boleyn. 

The new queen hated Cardinal Wolsey and brought about a 
quarrel between him and the king, so that Wolsey lost his high 
place in the kingdom and died an unhappy death. 

Henry now became unbearable. He tired of Queen Anne and 
accused her of being unfaithful to him. She was taken to the 
Tower of London and beheaded. Then the king married Jane 
Seymour, a young woman, who died a little later, after her son, 
who became Edward VI, was born. Henry’s next wife was a 
princess from Flanders, Anne of Cleves. He divorced her in some- 
thing like six months. Catherine Howard became his wife after 
this, and she was beheaded when Henry grew weary of her. The 
last wife was Catherine Parr, who outlived the king. 

All the world knew how wicked the King of England was. 
All the world today speaks of the eighth Henry with a kind of 
horror. Yet he ought to have been a great king. He was really a 
statesman, a man of brains and a man of power. He had the 
quality of making himself liked by people, and his subjects would 
have loved him dearly if only he had been a better man. 


ST. PATRICK’S DAY 

ARCH THE Seventeenth is St. Patrick’s Day. 
Patrick is the great saint of Ireland, and there 
are many quaint legends about him. 

St. Patrick was born toward the end of the 
fourth century. His birthplace was Kilpatrick, 
a little place near Glasgow, in Scotland. Among 
the stories told of Patrick’s childhood is one 
about his having brought home some pieces of ice on a day in the 
winter. His nurse scolded him and told him that on such a cold 
day he should have brought home wood and not ice. At this the 
boy gathered the ice together in a little heap and made a prayer. 



102 



ST. PATRICK THE SHEPHERD 

Behold, the pile of ice became at once a bonfire! On another 
occasion his nurse wanted some honey, and there was none. The 
boy prayed again and took up a pitcher of water. When he 
poured from the pitcher it was honey and not water that flowed out ! 

When Patrick was sixteen years of age his father met with 
disaster. All his servants were sold into slavery and Patrick 
with them. He was carried over to Ireland and given cattle to 
tend. Some say that he became a shepherd and looked after his 
sheep on the mountain of Slemish. This is a well-known mountain 
in the north of Ireland, and travelers there have it pointed out to 
them. On the heather-grown sides of this big hill St. Patrick is 
supposed to have dreamed the hours away while his sheep wan- 
dered about seeking food. 

Another tale has it that Patrick was sold into slavery a second 
time. The price paid for him was a kettle. When the kettle was 
put on the fire it remained cold, no matter how hot the fire became. 
It was, therefore, entirely useless. The owners of the kettle 
bought Patrick back again, and then the kettle worked all right. 

Somehow, Patrick must have obtained his freedom. He then 
became a missionary and started in to convert the people to Christi- 
anity. He traveled all through Ireland, doing wonderful things. 
He gave the blind their sight again; he made the sick well, and 
always he was kind and helpful to everybody. He baptized many 
people and selected pastors to look after them when he went away. 
The people all loved him very devotedly. 

It is told of St. Patrick that he freed Ireland from snakes. 
The island is not supposed to have any snakes, and this is the story 
told to account for that fact. 

St. Patrick’s Day is always observed in Ireland. The men 
wear shamrocks in their hats and there is feasting and rejoicing. 
It is a time when the rich give to the poor. 


103 



DANTE AND BEATRICE 


Painted by Henry Holiday 


In America we remember St. Patrick’s Day, too. For there 
are so many people from Ireland in this country that it has become 
the fashion to decorate with green, and sell shamrock plants and 
blackthorn sticks and clay pipes in the stores. After all, whether 
we are Irish or not, we all in some way love the little green island 
over the sea, from which have come to us so many great men and 
beautiful songs and not a little choice poetry. 


A DREAMER OF ITALY 

DANTE. 

OU have learned about the wandering poet of 
Greece, Homer. You have read the story of the 
great Roman poet, Virgil. Now you are to 
know something about an Italian poet who lived 
twelve hundred years after Virgil. His name 
was Dante. 

Dante was born in the beautiful city of 
Florence. This city is noted for its many famous painters, sculp- 
tors and poets. The family of Dante was a well-known one in 
the city. 


104 


When Dante was only a boy, nine years of age, he one day 
went to a party. The little girl who was giving the party was called 
Beatrice. She was a dainty, fairy-like little creature, with golden 
hair and blue eyes. Dante fell in love with her. He himself must 
have been a good-looking boy. He is said to have been tall and 
slim and very intelligent. He loved books better than people, and 
he spent a great deal of time dreaming. He thought that Beatrice 
was like some beautiful angel who had been sent down from heaven. 

Dante went away from the party very thoughtful. From that 
day he lived with his heart full of Beatrice. As she grew older 
he loved her still more; she became a beautiful young woman, 
and he a stalwart young man, and still he loved her deeply and 
reverently. 

Dante never married Beatrice. He was a soldier, as well as 
a poet and scholar, and when he was twenty-four he fought in an 
important battle. The very next year Beatrice, who was not 
strong, died, and Dante was broken-hearted. He longed in some 
way to show people what a great thing it means for a man to love 
a good woman. 

His friends thought that Dante would be better off if he had 
a wife, so that he would not think so much about Beatrice. There- 
fore, they persuaded him to marry, which he did. His wife was 
Gemma, a sharp-tongued woman, whom the poet could not get along 
with very well. 

When he was about twenty-seven he wrote quite a wonderful 
piece of work. It was the story of his boyhood and early man- 
hood, and he called it “The New Life.” It was full of his love for 
Beatrice and of what that love had been to him. 

Dante then became interested in politics, and from that time 
the troubles of his life began. He had many enemies, and they 
made things very hard for him. He held high offices and did every- 
thing well, but in the end he was forced to leave his home city and 
take refuge in another town some distance away. He traveled 
around and picked up a great deal of knowledge, and finally he 
settled down in Ravenna and died there. 

In exile he wrote his great book, “The Divine Comedy.” This 
is the vision of a man with a big soul. In it he tells how he 
dreamed of visiting, first. Hell ; then. Purgatory ; and then. Heaven. 
He saw many people in his dream — famous people who belonged 
to all the ages past. The evil people were being punished for their 
sins, and the good people were enjoying the rewards of having 
been good. 


105 


He met Beatrice in heaven and she went with him on a part 
of his journey. She explained many things to him that he could not 
understand. 

Dante is thought to have died of a broken heart. He wanted 
to go back to Florence, and he thought that he would be able to 
go. Things turned out in such a way that he could not return, 
and after that he did not seem to care to live. 

All the pictures that men have made of the poet Dante show 
him very tall, and very thin, and very solemn. His face is one of 
the saddest faces we know. 

Men who write great poems must always be great dreamers. 
Dante was one of the greatest dreamers of them all. It was as if 
some part of him went away from his body and lived in strange 
places, and then came back to show him all that it had seen. 

Some day you will know this great poet better, when you are 
old enough to read his poems. Then, too, you will know the lovely 
Beatrice, of whom he has written so wonderfully. 

Homer was blind and a beggar ; Virgil was well-educated, well- 
fed, and much favored at the court of the great Csesar ; Dante was 
a lonely, solitary, silent figure in the midst of a great, bustling 
crowd. Homer told of what heroes had done; Virgil wrote out 
history and stories in the form of adventures; Dante looked into 
his own heart and mind, and wrote about all that he found there. 


PLUTARCH’S LIVES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 

THEMISTOCLES 

E must go back to almost five hundred years be- 
fore the birth of Christ to learn about the great 
cities of Sparta and Athens, and the glories of 
the States known as Greece. 

Greece was the center of civilization prior to 
the rise of the Roman Republic and Empire. In 
Sparta, Greek men were trained to be splendid 
soldiers, strong to endure. In Athens, they were also trained for 
war ; but here learning was considered deeply important, and most 
of the greatest Greek scholars and statesmen belonged to Athens 
or thereabouts. 

In the fourth century before the beginning of the Christian 
era the most dangerous enemies of the Greeks were the Persians. 



106 


Persia was in Asia, of course, and Darius, the great Persian king, 
invaded Greece. He was met by defeat in the famous Battle of 
Marathon, in 490 B.C. 

Many of the Greeks believed that this battle would end forever 
the attempts of Persia to conquer the Greek States. A few, how- 
ever, realized that this was too much to hope for, and among these 
was Themistocles. 

This man, an Athenian statesman, has been called the “Ulysses 
of Athens.” Like the bold warrior who, during the Trojan War, 
planned to gain entrance to Troy by means of the trick horse, 
Themistocles displayed a wisdom that proved later to be of real 
benefit to his State. He warned the people that the Persians 
would surely come again, and he urged them to build up a big 
navy and to prepare in every possible way for another invasion. 

Through the efforts of Themistocles, Athens soon had the 
largest fleet of any Greek city. 

The Persians did return, led by Xerxes, the son of Darius, 
who had died. Xerxes got together a mighty army and many 
ships; and the Greeks, hearing of these preparations, which took 
several years for their completion, decided to unite their forces to 
meet the enemy when they should enter Greece. Here again 
Themistocles proved himself a power, for he persuaded the differ- 
ent cities in Greece to leave off quarreling among themselves and 
to agree upon a certain plan of action in which all could take part. 

A narrow pass, known as Thermopylae, was chosen as the 
place where the Greeks should make their first stand against the 
arriving Persians. The Spartans were placed in charge, and in 
480 B.C., ten years after the Battle of Marathon, the Persians met 
the Greeks once more. Thermopylae was a narrow way between 
the mountains, and through this the enemy must come. Only a 
few could get in at a time and that was why it was so good a point 
for defense against invasion. 

If it had not been for treachery, the Greeks could have held 
the Persians back for a long time. But some traitor showed a 
different way by which the army could enter ; and so the Persians 
came upon the Greeks from the back, and every one of the brave 
Spartan defenders was killed. 

After that it seemed as if the Persians would conquer Greece 
easily, but in 479 B.C. there were two great battles. On the same 
day, the Greek fleets overcame the ships of the Persians, and the 
Greek army met and defeated the Persians on land. 

During the war Athens was burned, and after peace had been 
restored, the Athenians set about rebuilding the city and its walls. 


107 


Here Sparta interfered. Sparta and Athens had always been 
rivals for power, and the Spartans did not wish Athens to be too 
well protected. So she sent representatives to persuade the Athe- 
nians not to build the walls. They pretended that Sparta was 
afraid that in case of more trouble with Persia the enemy might 
use Athens as a fortress city. 

Themistocles was the man who handled the situation with 
tact and good judgment. He told the Spartan envoys to return 
to their city and say that the Athenians would send a committee 
to talk the matter over. He then got all the people together and 
urged them to hurry building the walls. He himself went to 
Sparta, telling the other envoys to wait until the walls were fairly 
high before they set out to join him. 

In some way, Themistocles made the Spartans believe that 
each day would bring the other envoys. He pretended to be much 
surprised and not very well pleased when they delayed coming. 
Some one brought news that the Athenians were going on with the 
walls, but Themistocles said that this could be nothing but rumor. 
The Spartans finally sent new envoys to Athens, but Themistocles 
saw to it that these men were held there, powerless. 

In this way sufficient time was gained to get the walls so 
nearly built that the Spartans were unable to interfere with 
the work. 

Time proved how wise Themistocles was, for Athens and 
Sparta did have a great quarrel which led to a long, important 
war. In the meantime, however, Themistocles had made the 
Athenians understand how necessary it was for them to have a 
large navy. He was foremost in getting the harbor of Pir«us 
extended and in protecting it by high walls. 

In fact, it was to Themistocles that the Athenians owed their 
power to become the first city of Greece, for they followed his 
advice and they were well rewarded. 

The pity of it was that Themistocles failed to handle his 
personal affairs with the same wisdom which he displayed in 
handling the affairs of the State. 

As he grew more powerful, he became greedy for gain. He 
took bribes and sold away his infiuence in order to become a rich 
man. At last even his friends could not trust him, and in 471 B.C. 
he was sent away into exile. He wandered all about Greece, and 
at last settled down at the court of the King of Persia. Here he 
had everything that he wanted and did not seem to mind very much 
the fact that he was really in disgrace. The king treated him well 
and he was fairly contented. He stayed in Persia till his death. 


108 


FAMOUS FAIRY TALES RETOLD 

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL 

{From Hans Christian Andersen’s Tales) 

I T was New Year’s Eve. The night was bit- 
terly cold. Out in the streets the lamps 
burned with a faint flicker, that shone dimly 
through the mist of the falling snow. 

One lonely little figure wandered down a 
narrow street in the very heart of the city. It 
was a small girl, with bare hands and feet, and a 
thin little dress that blew around her legs in the 
chill air and protected her but poorly from the 
coldness of the wind and the snow. 

In her thin apron she clutched a few bundles 
of matches, for she was a little match girl, who 
earned what she could by selling matches at the 
crowded street corners. Now the streets were 
deserted and she had no way of getting rid of 
her small stock. At the same time she must keep 
them, for she did not dare run the risk of losing 
the stray pennies that they still might bring. 

It had been a hard day for the little match girl. 
She had sold nothing, and no one had offered 
her even so much as a penny. Now she was cold 
and weak from hunger, but she was afraid to go 
home; for her home was a dreary, cheerless 
place, where failure to bring money meant a 
beating and nothing to eat. 

Sick and weary, she crouched down between 
two houses. Her hands and feet must have 
pained her greatly. She longed for a little fire 
with which to warm them. Then she thought of 




her matches. If only she could light just one, 
perhaps the heat from it might make her feel 
better. 

She took a match out of one of her bundles. 
She struck it, and as the light flared up she saw 
a wonderful stove, brightly burning with a 
grateful heat, just before her. For one instant 
she was as warm as toast. Then the match went 
out and she was as cold as before. 

The little match girl was now tempted to 
strike another match. It might be that again 
she would see the beautiful stove. She struck a 
second match, and behold! There was a table, 
spread with all sorts of good things, coming 
towards her. The table held a great roasted 
goose, steaming vegetables, and fruit and pud- 
ding. Just before it reached her, however, the 
match flickered into darkness. Who could blame 
the little match girl for now taking out a third 
match and striking it? 

This time it was a tall Christmas tree that 
greeted her in the light. It was hung with 
sparkling things and lighted by many candles. 
She stretched out her hands to them to catch 
them, but — once more her match would not last. 
As its light died away there seemed to fall 
around her sparks like so many stars dropping 
through the darkness. 

Then the little girl remembered something 
that her old grandmother had told her. This old 
woman was the only one in the world who had 
ever been kind to her, and she had told her that 
when a star shot through the heavens some soul 
was taking its way to God. 









Hi 


no 











Once more the little girl struck a match. This 
time it was Grandmother herself who stood be- 
fore her. When the little match girl saw her she 
began to sob. 

‘‘Oh, Grandmother!” she cried. “When you go 
take me with you. I know that you will disap- 
pear just as the stove and the table and the 
Christmas tree disappeared.” 

With feverish fingers she struck one by one 
all the remaining matches in her bundle, so that 
her grandmother might stay that much longer. 
Strangely enough, the old woman came nearer 
and nearer, and grew clearer and more clear. 
At last she put out her arms and gathered the 
child into them. Then together they rose through 
the air and sailed ever high and higher into a 
world where there was no snow, no cold, no 
hunger and no heartache. 

The match-selling and the beatings were all 
over for the poor little girl. 

Early next morning some one passing found 
a thin waif of a girl in a light dress, with feet 
and hands bare, frozen to death in the corner 
between the two houses. On the child’s lips, 
however, there was a smile. It was the smile 
with which the little match girl had gone to her 
grandmother’s protecting arms. 

Beside her luy what was left of the matches, 
and people who saw her said, “She struck the 
matches to warm herself.” 

None of them knew of the wonder-world that 
the matches had brought her, or of the happi- 
ness that she took away with her in the end. 


Ill 






W HEN March winds blow, 

The trees sing low 

Of how the Spring will soon be here. ^ 
Then may we know 
That soon will show 

Green graSaj*^n^ath skies blue and clear. 

When March winds blow 

Where flowers sleep 

In woodland dells so dark and deep ; 

The world may know 
That soon will peep 
Blue violets. Then bi rriR ep. 

When March ^^lilds blow 
The rains ^Jlfl faall;*' 

And all the world will hear Spring’s call ; 

Then brooks will flow, 

The worms will crawl, 

And life will wake for one and all. 



112 


THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 





X. PYGMALION AND GALATEA 

}N ancient Greece there was a god who lived on the 
earth as the ruler of a small kingdom. He was 
called Pygmalion, and he was a sculptor. His 
beautiful statues, carved out of blocks of marble 
and pieces of ivory, were known all over the 
country. Pygmalion lived alone. He had never 
married, because he disliked women. This dislike 
grew with the years, and he became more and more absorbed in his 
art, giving his whole heart and mind to it. 

One night he dreamed, and in the dream he saw a woman of 
surpassing beauty. In every detail she seemed perfect. Even in 
his dream, Pygmalion knew that he must create this wonderful 
figure in marble. His first thought on getting awake was to find 
material as nearly flawless as possible. 

Day and night he labored, scarcely eating at all, and sleeping 
very little. Day by day, as his chisel fell upon the marble, the 
wonderful image grew. It was a full-sized woman that he was 
making, and she was perfection itself in both face and form. 

Pygmalion became entirely absorbed in the figure he was 
carving. Gradually, a strange thing began to happen. The 
sculptor found himself wishing that this was not a marble woman, 
but a real one. Here at last was a woman he could love, and he 
longed to have life enter into her. 

By and by the statue was done. Pygmalion could not bring 
himself to leave it. He pretended that it was alive; he gave it a 
name, Galatea ; and he had a purple couch built on which the beau- 
tiful woman in stone might lie. He never worked any more; he 
spent all his time gazing at the cold image of Galatea and wishing 
that he might kiss her into life. 


113 



Then a wonderful thing came to pass. The feast of Venus, the 
goddess of love, carrie around. Pygmalion had to help his people 
celebrate it. He made a special prayer for himself — and the prayer 
was that he might find a woman exactly like his marble statue and 
have her for his wife. 

Venus took pity on him and decided to help him. She finally 
made up her mind to change the stone image into a living, breathing 
woman. Therefore, when Pygmalion returned home, after one of 
the days spent in celebration, he was astounded to find, asleep on the 



PYGMALION AND GALATEA 


114 



purple couch, a beautiful woman who actually breathed. More 
than that, this woman was exactly like the statue he had made, 
except that she was flesh instead of marble. 

While Pygmalion stood gazing down on her, scarcely able to 
believe his eyes, she awoke. She looked up at him, and in that 
instant they loved each other very dearly. Pygmalion helped her 
up, and they talked over the wonderful event together. 

They were married shortly after, and we are given to under- 
stand that they were very happy. They had one son, who later 
became known among the Greek heroes. 



TN April all the world awakes. 

And Spring her triumph holds; 

The Sun his boldest bow then makes. 
And in his arms the earth enfolds. 

The crocuses lift smiling heads ; 

The violets shed their tears of dew ; 
The fairy host on green turf treads ; 
The birds their friendships all renew. 

The children, too, are glad and gay ; 

They sing and frolic all the day. 

Now comes the time for care-free play. 
As Spring steps forth in bright array. 


115 


THE FIRST OF THE GREAT ENGLISH POETS 


GEOFFREY CHAUCER 

HE first great book of poetry to be written in 
English was The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey 



Chaucer. This poet was born in London, about 


1340. He was the son of a man of good connec- 
M tions, and he received an excellent education for 
, that time. 


He lived in the days when Edward III was 


king of England, and we can imagine him, a boy of perhaps sixteen, 
standing in the street in London, watching the Black Prince go by 
with the captive king of France. 

Just about that time he became a page in the household of one 
of the king’s daughters-in-law; and in this service he learned the 
graces of a courtier, which clung to him all his life and made it 
possible for him to mingle with people of any rank. 

Chaucer served also as a soldier. Later, he was one of the 
king’s most trusted followers and was sent on a mission to Italy. 
There he became acquainted with the works of Dante and other 
Italian poets. It was through the influence of this Italian trip 
that he became ambitious to be a poet. 

When he returned to England he was given a position by the 
king which gave him time to write. Then Edward died, and for a 
while Chaucer was very poor and out of favor at the king’s court. 
His fortunes improved, however, and he died — in 1400 — a fairly 
rich man. 



MASTER CHAUCER 


THE REEVE 


116 




Our pictures of Chaucer show him short and stout, with a 
funny little beard and a face that makes one smile,. He was a very 
cheerful person, we are told, and got a good deal of pleasure out of 
life. Though he lived so much in cities, yet he loved the country 
with a great and passionate love. He writes that he would fall 
upon his knees before a Spring flower — so wonderful an appeal did 
it make to him. 

Chaucer’s book, The Canterbury Tales, is really a number of 
stories. In the first part of it he explains how the stories came to 
be told. 

In those days men and women would make journeys to sacred 
places. One was Canterbury Cathedral. These “pilgrims,” as they 
were called, sometimes rode on horses and sometimes walked. On 
this particular journey a band of pilgrims met at a quaint little 
hotel, called “The Tabard Inn.” There were twenty-nine of them, 
and some of them were as follows : a Knight, a Prioress, a Monk, a 
Merchant, a Carpenter, a Weaver, a Cook, a Sailor, a Doctor, and 
a Parson. The poet himself was supposed to be one of them. 

Now, the man who kept the Tabard Inn set forth a plan to these 
pilgrims. He told them that in order to pass the time away on 
the journey, each should tell some kind of tale. The one who told 
the best tale should have a supper at the inn when they came back 
from Canterbury. 

So it came about that each told a story, and these stories are 
related by Chaucer in very delightful verses. 



THE COOK OF LONDON 


THE SQUIRE 


117 


Boys and girls would find The Canterbury Tales hard to read, 
because Chaucer wrote them in the language of fourteenth-century 
England. Some day, however, the readers of this story will get a 
great deal of pleasure out of reading this quaint, queer, old book that 
contains so much beautiful verse by the first real poet of England. 



A POET’S POET 

EDMUND SPENSER 

LMOST two hundred years after Geoffrey Chaucer 
made his famous journey to Italy, a poet, well 
known at the court of Queen Elizabeth, left 
London to go to Ireland, to live there. The poet 
was Edmund Spenser, who wrote “The Shep- 
hearde’s Calendar” and “The Faerie Queene.” 

Spenser was born in London in about 1553. 
His people were poor, but he managed to go to school. He even 
went to Cambridge University and completed a course there. 

He was not a healthy lad, and he did a good deal of dreaming. 
He also read much and studied even more. He learned all about 
Greek and Roman and Italian literature. He was in love with the 
poetry of Chaucer. 

When he left college he went to the country. There he wrote 
“The Shephearde’s Calendar.” 

One of the bravest men, and one of the handsomest, at the bril- 
liant court of Queen Elizabeth, was Sir Philip Sidney. He himself 
was a poet, and he became friends "with Edmund Spenser. Because 
Sidney was rich he could help Spenser, and this he did. 



118 


Spenser visited often at “Penshurst,” where Sidney lived. It 
was at “Penshurst,” in fact, that he really wrote his first import- 
ant poetry. Sidney was delighted with it. 

When “The Shephearde’s Calendar” was published it made a 
big stir in London. People said that another Chaucer had 
appeared. 

Spenser was now appointed secretary to the Lord Deputy of 
Ireland, and went with him to live in the Emerald Isle. For some 
years after this he had to work very hard, because Ireland was one 
great battlefield. It was an unhappy time and the poet was very 
glad when he was given a large estate in County Cork, where he 
could sit down in peace and comfort to write. 

In Ireland Spenser started “The Faerie Queene.” When he 
had three books of this very long poem finished, he read it to Sir 
Walter Raleigh. Spenser and Raleigh were close friends, and 
Raleigh thought “The Faerie Queene” ought to be published at once. 

The two men went to London together, and Spenser was 
warmly received. He was now looked upon as the greatest English 
poet, with only Chaucer to be compared to him. 

Unfortunately, just about this time Raleigh fell into disgrace 
at court. Spenser was now left to get along as best he could. Find- 
ing everything unfavorable, he soon went back to Ireland. There 
he married, and ^wrote some more great poetry, among it three 
additional books of “The Faerie Queene.” 

It is said that he intended to make twelve books of it, but war 
broke out again in Ireland, and Spenser’s home was destroyed. He 
fled to England. His health, however, was poor, and he soon died. 
It is believed that he really starved to death. 

“The Shephearde’s Calendar” consists of one poem for every 
month of the year. Spenser himself is the shepherd, and the poems 
are the songs that he is supposed to sing. There is a little of every- 
thing in them, but much of the verse is really beautiful. 

“The Faerie Queene” is all about a beautiful queen known as 
Gloriana. This is supposed to be Queen Elizabeth. The people 
around Gloriana are said to represent different friends and enemies 
of Elizabeth. The six books have each a Christian virtue for its 
theme, and they take up Holiness, Temperance, Chastity, Friend- 
ship, Justice and Courtesy. 

Spenser is in truth a poet of the poets. His beautiful way of 
saying things makes music for the ear. He paints all kinds of 
splendid pictures in his verses, and when we read his poetry we 
cannot help loving it. 


119 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 



T he death of Henry VIII brought to the throne of England a 
boy ten years of age. He was the son of Henry and Jane 
Seymour, and he was a weak, sickly lad, easily persuaded by 
his advisors to do anything they wanted done. 

At Henry’s death England was strongly Protestant. Edward 
VI was a Protestant king, and his ministers urged him to sweep 
away from sight everything that even reminded them of Roman 
Catholicism. Therefore, images, pictures and fine glass windows in 
the churches were destroyed. A new “Prayer Book,” no longer in 
Latin, but in English, was published, and this the people were made 
to use. 

Edward did not grow stronger as he grew older. He really 
had consumption. When he was fifteen years old it was known 
that he could not live much longer. 

Then it was that his most important adviser, the Duke of 
Northumberland, tried to turn the king’s mind toward an heir to 
the throne. The Princess Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and 
his first wife, — and Edward’s oldest sister, — was really the suc- 
cessor. Mary, however, was Catholic, and so Northumberland told 
the young king that he must not let her become queen. 

Edward had a charming young cousin, Lady Jane Grey. She 
was married to Northumberland’s son. That was the reason, of 


120 


course, that Northumberland thought of her as the best person to 
become ruler of England ; for he felt sure that he could be the real 
king if his daughter-in-law were the queen in name. 

While poor little Edward lay dying, Northumberland prevailed 
upon him to make a will naming Lady Jane Grey his heir. 

Three days after the king’s death. Lady Jane was proclaimed 
the queen of England. We are very sorry for her, for she did not 
want to be queen. She knew that her cousin Mary had the first 
right to the throne and she begged that they would not crown her. 
Northumberland, however, insisted that she do as he wished — and 
as the king had said. 

Lady Jane was very young and very beautiful. She was queen 
of England for just eleven days. Then the people who wanted 
Mary for queen — and who hated Northumberland — rose up in their 
might. Northumberland had to run away, and after he had gone 
they took the sad little queen to the Tower of London. There they 
killed her, though she was innocent of any wrong. She suffered 
simply because her father-in-law wanted power. 

Now, of course. Princess Mary became queen. Mary was a 
Catholic, and soon the new prayer books were destroyed and the old 
Latin ones forced upon the people. When any one would refuse to 
become a Roman Catholic, Mary would have him or her burned in a 
public place. Mary herself believed that she was doing right. She 
was sick most of the time and Mways unhappy. She married Philip, 
the King of Spain, who treated her cruelly and deserted her. She 
got into a war with France and suffered defeat. 

At last she died, leaving behind her an England filled with 
sorrow because of the terrible things she had done in the name of 
religion. , 

The new queen of England was Elizabeth, the daughter of 
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth was as strongly Protest- 
ant as her sister Mary had been Catholic. 



12L 



ATUR 


SPRING IS HERE ! 

IS Spring! No one needs to be told. 
The shrill, happy voices of the children 
as they run joyously out from school 
proclaim the glad tidings. The first bird- 
notes retell the story, and the soft shoots of 
green that peep from the ground and cover 
the boughs of the trees give still further 
evidence of the truth of the statement : Spring 
is here ! 

In the city the parks have been empty. Now 
they are filled with frolicking children and 
smiling older people. The windows of the 
houses have been shut, but now they are open ; 
people everywhere are letting in the warm, 
buoyant sunshine and the fresh, fragrant 
Spring air. Those who shuddered when the 
wind howled in the long Winter nights, now 
welcome the gentle, balmy breezes that bring 
the bird’s song and the first promises of 
Summer. 

Out in the country, the brown and yellow 
fields are getting into new, bright green 
clothes. The big, bare branches of the trees 
are covered over with fine, feathery pale green 
foliage. Down in the glades the purple violets 
lift their little faces from among the deep 
green leaves, and the woods are pink and blue 
and purple with the hepatica, the anemone. 




122 


the Spring beauty, and the delicate arbutus 
tucked away under the moss. 

Only a short while ago the brooks were 
ice-covered and silent. Now they flow free 
and they sing their freedom song. Down by 
the water’s edge the sweet-smelling, waxen- 
white narcissus lifts its head proudly to the 
blue sky. It is said that Narcissus, a Greek 
youth and very beautiful, had been hunting 
all day in the forest with a group of other 
youths. He strayed away from his com- 
panions, and before he realized it he had lost 
them. During his search for them he chanced 
to pass a fountain. The water looked good, 
and he was thirsty. He knelt down to take 
a drink of it. What was his surprise to see a 
beautiful face looking up at him from the 
water! He thought it a nymph or a water- 
sprite, and he spoke to it. “You are the most 
beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he said; 
“come out of the fountain and be my bride. I 
will always love and cherish you.” 

The face smiled, but there came no answer. 
The youth coaxed and pleaded in vain. Day 
after day he leaned over the edge of the 
^ -> I fountain and begged the beautiful creature to 
y i come to him or at least speak to him. He 
did not eat, nOr would he drink. At last he 
died, whether of starvation or of grief we 
cannot say. He never realized that the face in 
the water was his own face reflected there 
as in a mirror. When his friends, looking 






123 





Lj^ 


ATUR 


for him, reached the fountain, they found a 
beautiful white flower blooming there. They 
called it “narcissus.” 

All during the months of snow and cold 
and ice, the woods have been very quiet. Only 
the wind whistling through the trees made 
any noise, for the flowers and the animals 
were asleep, while the birds were away 
visiting. 

Now, however, everything is alive and 
bustling. The birds, returned, are chirping 
merrily ; the flowers have a method of 
speaking, all their own; the fresh young 
leaves on the trees are full of whisperings, 
for the light Spring winds have come to gossip 
with them. 

Here a rabbit chases through the thick 
brush ; again, a squirrel scurries up some tree 
trunk ; the insects buzz, and there is a general 
hum of “get busy, get busy!” — for the Spring 
is here ! 

Spring means new life, new garments, new 
energy for work, and new desire for play. It 
means everything that is bright and happy 
and full of the joy of living. 

In the Spring the gardens begin to grow, 
and the seeds in the flelds shoot up, promising 
the harvest of grain. Everything in the 
Spring is young, and, being young, without 
care or sadness or blight. If we could keep 
Spring in our hearts, then would we always 
be young, and full of life and joyousness! 







124 





MASTER 

WILL SHAKESPEARE 

AND 

STRATFORD-ON-AVON 


[N a picturesque little town in Eng- 
land, called Stratford-on-Avon, we 
find a strange-looking, small, low 
house, that is known as “Shake- 
speare’s Birthplace.” It is a very 
neat little house, all scrubbed and 
polished, and at its back is a beautiful 
garden. Inside we find a bust that is 
marked “Shakespeare,” some pictures and books, and a lady, who 
tells us that in this house, most likely on April 23, 1564, William 
Shakespeare, the greatest of all the English poets, was born. 

It was not, very probably, a clean little house in those days. 
The small boy who learned to walk and talk there was just an 
ordinary child, in the home of a man who made gloves and sold 
them, along with leather and wool. 

The boy went to a school in the town. We have reason to be- 
lieve that he did not like school. All around Stratford there were 
beautiful woodlands, and the boys of the section could go fishing 
and swimming in the most lovely places. 



THE HOUSE IN WHICH WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WAS BORN 


125 



Shakespeare’s father was a man fairly well-off until William 
was about thirteen years old. Then troubles came, and the lad had 
to go to work. Just what he did we are not told ; we have our doubts 
about his being altogether steady, 
for he must have been dreaming 



some of his poetry even then. 


Young Shakespeare fell in love 
with a girl eight years older than 
himself. When we visit Stratford 
we take a little trip, a mile or so 
away from the town, and come to 
a tiny cottage with a thatched 
roof, at Shottery. The cottage 
nestles in a beautiful old English 
garden, and the flowers are won- 
derful. To this little house came 
William Shakespeare, most likely 
a good-looking young fellow and 
able to talk in a charming way. 
On the fireside settle in the cot- 
tage, and in the woods around the 
house, he wooed Anne Hathaway 


THE BOY SHAKESPEARE 


?nd won her. 

They were married for less than three years, however, when 
Shakespeare suddenly left Stratford and went up to London. It is 
said that he was caught poaching on the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy, 
not far from Stratford, and that he went away to escape punish- 
ment. Maybe this was so, or maybe not, but certainly he would 
have gone to London, anyway; for in the great city there were 
opportunities for an ambitious young man to do well. 

Of the first seven years of Shakespeare’s life in London, we 
know nothing. Somehow or other he became interested in the 
theatre. He began as an actor. The theatres in those days were 
very odd. There were two of them just outside of London. Women 
were not allowed to act. In fact, very few women were allowed to 
go to the theatres at all. It is possible that Shakespeare began by 
taking the part of a nice, young boy, for we think that he must have 
been rather handsome, and everybody agrees that he was well liked. 

Just when Shakespeare himself began to write plays is another 
thing that nobody is very clear about. Write, though, he did, and 
many things, too. In 1593 his poem called “Venus and Adonis” was 
published. Another poem followed this, and then came a number of 
plays: “Two Gentlemen of Verona,’’ “A Comedy of Errors,” “Love’s 


126 




Labour’s Lost,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Merchant of 
Venice,” “Richard II,” “Richard III,” “Henry IV,” “King John,” 
“Titus Andronicus” and “Romeo and Juliet.” 

All London was stirred by the arrival of this new poet. He 
made friends with people in high places ; he spent many gay hours 
in the old Mermaid Tavern with another poet, Ben Jonson, and still 
another, Michael Drayton. He went into partnership with two men 
and built a new theatre, known as the Globe, and here his many 
plays were acted. He himself acted in them and managed them, 
as well. 

Shakespeare was not the kind of poet 
who spends his money recklessly. He 
was very practical and business-like. He 
made money and he saved it. He made 
up his mind that when he had enough to 
live on without working, he would go 
back to Stratford and live there as a 
country gentleman. 

Therefore, in about 1605, Shakespeare 
bought the best house in Stratford, 
called “New Place,” and went there to 
live. From then until his death he was 
a peaceable, highly respected, influential 
citizen of the town. His friends came 
from London to visit him and he enjoyed 
SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON q wonderful Quiet and rest. 

In 1616, on April 23, Shakespeare died. He was buried in 
the parish church. When we go to Stratford we see a beautiful 
church, with a tall spire, standing on the banks of the River Avon. 
Very quietly we go into the church, and are taken straight up to 
the altar. There, up in the wall, on one side, is set a bust of the 



127 


poet, and on the floor are the flat stones that mark his grave and 
the graves of his family. 

Years after the death of the poet, a memorial theatre was 
erected in Stratford-on-Avon. In that theatre have been gathered 
together all kinds of relics by which the world may remember 
William Shakespeare. 

Every boy and girl should see some of the Shakespeare plays 
produced. We have them given nowadays with beautiful scenery 
and wonderful light effects. Back in London, in the late fifteen- 
hundreds, there was a crude stage, with a curtain, and sometimes a 
painted background that served for all the scenes. A sign was put 
up to say: ‘'This scene is the Forest of Arden;” or, “This scene is 
Venice, a street.” We laugh at these things today, because we have 
given to Shakespeare something which he most likely never 
dreamed of — great theatres, fine scenery and furniture appropriate 
to the play. It is the big test of how much worth-while the plays of 
the Stratford poet are, that they are being given year in and year 
out ; that every actor who aims to be great has the ambition to play 
as some Shakespearean character. 



THE CHURCH AT STRATFORD 


128 


THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 



XI. ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE 

jRPHEUS was a young Greek whose father was the 
god Apollo, but whose mother was a mortal. 
Therefore, Orpheus was part god and part man. 
When he was still a small boy, Apollo, who, you 
will remember, was the god of music as well as the 
god of light, gave a golden lyre to his beautiful 
little son. The lyre is a small stringed instrument, 
very much like a baby harp, and it makes very sweet music. Apollo 
taught the boy to play on it, and never before had there been such a 
wonderful player as Orpheus proved to be. He was a born musician, 
and was also a poet. It is said that every one who heard Orpheus 
play was enchanted; when he went out into the woods and played 
among the trees, the animals followed him, and became gentle in- 
stead of fierce, while the trees and the very rocks seemed to feel the 
power of his music. 

In the woods there lived a beautiful nymph. She was called 
Eurydice, and Orpheus fell in love with her. He played to her, tell- 
ing her all his love in exquisite music, and Eurydice promised to be 
his wife. 

For a while Orpheus and Eurydice lived very happily together. 
She was a sweet woman and was devoted to her musical husband. 
They lived in the forest, and made friends with the birds and the 
beasts, and their days were filled with song and flowers. 

Then one day, as Eurydice wandered through the woodland, a 
shepherd saw her. He fell in love with her and wanted her to let 
him kiss her. Eurydice was frightened, for she did not know just 
where Orpheus was. She started to run away from the strange 
shepherd, but he ran after her. While she was running she stepped 


129 


on a poisonous snake, which was hidden in the grass, and the snake 
bit her so that she died. 

When Orpheus learned what had happened to his wife he was 
mad with grief. The only comfort he found was in his music, and 
he went everywhere playing out his sorrow on his lyre, until both 
gods and men began to be weary of his lamenting. When he saw 
that no one seemed able or willing to help him, he decided to go to 
the world of the dead. 

You will recall that the king of the underworld, which was 
called Hades, was Pluto, and that the wife of Pluto was Proserpine, 
the daughter of Ceres. Orpheus found a cave which had an entrance 
into the kingdom of Pluto, and he went through this cave into the 
other world. All around him he saw the ghosts or spirits of those 
who had died. Some were happy and many were sad. Orpheus 
played on his lyre and caused some of them to feel a little better. At 
last he reached the very heart of Hades, and there came into the 
presence of Pluto, seated on his throne, with his wife, Proserpine, 
beside him. Orpheus told them his story and begged King Pluto to 
give his wife back to him. He shed many tears as he plead with 
the king, and then he played for them. His music was more 
beautiful than any they had ever heard, and both the king and the 
queen felt very sorry for this handsome young man and wished to 
aid him. 

Orpheus wanted to die, too, if that was the only way by which 
he could again meet his wife. At last Pluto was moved to summon 
Eurydice from among the ghosts, and now he promised Orpheus 
that his wife might go back to the earth with him on one condition. 
It was this : that Orpheus should go first and Eurydice follow after 
him, but Orpheus must not once look behind him to see if his wife 
was coming after him. If he so much as glanced backward before 
they reached the entrance to the upper world, Eurydice would once 
more be taken from him. 

With great rejoicing, Orpheus promised to obey. As he left 
King Pluto he played sweet music and sang. Eurydice, still limping 
from her sore foot, went after him. The way was often hard and 
rugged, and all the while poor Orpheus was fearful lest some danger 
come to his wife. But he kept on bravely for a long part of the way. 
Just before they reached the entrance to the upper world, however, 
Orpheus felt that he must make sure that Eurydice was with him. 
He gave one quick look backward. In that instant Eurydice was 
snatched away, and though they stretched their arms toward each 
other and tried to reach each other, it was of no use. Orpheus him- 
self was lifted up and carried straight back to the earth, and the 


130 



ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE IN HADES 


131 



entrance into the kingdom of Pluto was closed against him. He tried 
again and again to get back, but he never succeeded. 

' Orpheus remained faithful to Eurydice all his life. The women 
of Thrace, who were considered very beautiful, tried to win his love. 
They wanted him to marry one of them. He would not have any- 
thing, to do with them, but played out his sorrow for the loss of 
Eurydice day after day. This made the women who knew him 
angry, and one day, when there had been a great feast, they tried to 
kill him. One of them threw a spear at him, as he stood playing. 
The spear glanced away and did no harm. Then they threw stones 
at him, but the stones did not hurt him, for all the while he went 
on playing. Then the women became desperate, and they fell upon 
him, flinging his lyre from him. Among them they killed him. 
After that they threw his body and his lyre into the river. Jupiter 
saw the instrument and picked it up. He set it in the sky, up among 
the stars, where it is said to be to this day. 

The spirit of Orpheus, of course, went to the underworld. 
There, after a little, it found the spirit of Eurydice. Now they were 
happy, and were able to spend all their time together. In this way 
Orpheus at last got his wish to die and go to be forever with the 
woman that he so loved. 


LITTLE VISITS TO FAMOUS PLACES 



ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA 

OTHER had taken Jack and me for a short trip to 
Florida, just after the Christmas holidays. Of 
course we enjoyed every bit of it, as we went run- 
ning around from one small town to another. 
Most of all, though, I liked the quaint little city of 
St. Augustine. Strangely enough, there does not 
seem to be one thing in it that suggests America. 
It is just as if some one had carried over a picturesque little city 
from Spain and had set it down in the heart of the United States. 
As we got off ‘the train from Jacksonville we were surrounded by 
a number of carriages, the queerest-looking objects that you can 
imagine. They were drawn by two horses, and had two seats with 
backs of brightly colored oak. In the front seat of each sat a black 
driver, with frock coat and high hat of tan to match his carriage. 
As one of these stepped forward to us, he bowed courteously and 
removed his hat, saying: “Ya’as, missis, ya’as; only sev’ty-five cents 
to see the whole city.” 


132 




PONCE DE LEON 


Into his carriage we stepped, and he started off at a brisk trot. 
First of all, the houses of the wealthy people of the town were pointed 
out to us. Then our attention was called to the two large hotels, 
the Ponce de Leon and the Alcazar, both palatial in appearance and 
surrounded by wonderful gardens. A few minutes later we turned 
into a small street, and stopped before an old church built of coquina 
shells and filled with a wonderful air of solemnity and dignity. This 
is one of the oldest churches in America. Still later we stopped 
before the door of an old, old house, on a very narrow street. This 
is the ancient Spanish Mission Building, and is the oldest building 


133 


in the United States. We were admitted into the place with all due 
ceremony, and were shown through the rooms, each one containing 
relics and being rich in memories of the past. This building was 
erected by the monks of Saint Francis, and they used it as a chapel 
until 1590. It is built, as we have said, of the coquina shells, and for 
many years was the only building in existence made out of this 
material. One sees the coquina shell, however, in every corner of 
St. Augustine. They are small shells found in the soil and along the 
coast, almost as plentiful as sand. With their attractive shapes and 
pale, beautiful colorings, they make a very good-looking as well as 
substantial building material. In the old Mission House is the cradle 
in which Washington and all of his brothers and sisters were rocked 
to sleep, and the bed in which our first President slept. There are 
chairs of all periods, and from all parts of the world, gathered here, 
with pieces of rare old brass, porcelain, mahogany and rosewood. 
Wherever we went, we heard : “This is a wishing chair. Sit on it 
and never grow old;” or, “Sit on it and make a wish,” until Jack 
said : “Really, mother, there seem to be nothing but wishing places 
in this house.” Out in the garden is the wishing well, at which we 
were allowed three wishes. Close by grows the “money vine” ! Here 
we picked a leaf and were told to carry it in our purses, and so 
increase our money threefold. 

After we returned to the carriage and started off, we rode for 
a while through many beautiful streets, until at last we were brought 
to the mysterious “Fountain of Youth.” 

Hundreds of years ago Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer, 
set out, as you may know, to find a fountain the water of which 
would insure everlasting life. Through the help of the Indians, he 
found a spring which the red men told him was the one he sought, 
and it is this same fountain that we see in Florida. 

I had always imagined this “Fountain of Perpetual Youth,” as 
it has been called, to be something extremely beautiful, and had ex- 
pected to find its waters gushing upward in wonderful sprays. To 
my astonishment, I found it nothing more than a well. It is pre- 
served now by a little shelter built around it. A man stands beside 
it, and gives the visitor a glass of its water for twenty-five cents. 
Mother afterward remarked that she thought some one ought to 
give a person twenty-five cents for drinking it, instead of asking 
paymentifor it, which shows you that it is not the best-tasting water 
in the world. Close to the well is an old cross made by the followers 
of Ponce de Leon. It was placed there in 1513, and the remarkable 
thing about it is that it is composed of fifteen stones running length- 
wise and thirteen stones running across. For many years this cross 


134 


lay buried; then its existence was revealed in a letter, and it was 
unearthed. 

^ After leaving the “Fountain of Youth” we went out to sec f. 
splendid orange grove, one of the more recent features of the city. 
On our way we passed the colored settlement of St Augustine. 
Here the black people are kept isolated from the white people, and 
live a clean, happy life, with homes that they own themselves, in a 
community where they have their own stores and schools and 
amusement places. 

The orange grove made me long -to walk through it and pick 
orange after orange, eating them right there on the spot. Nothing 
is more inviting to the appetite than an orange grove, nor can any- 
thing of its kind be more beautiful. The big, yellow fruit mingles 
with the shining dark green leaves, and makes one think of 
Christmas trees covered with golden balls. 

From the orange grove we went on to the “Alligator Farm,” 
and this we would not have missed for the world! Here live 
thousands and thousands of real, live alligators, of all kinds and 
sizes. Did you ever know that these animals live sometimes until 
they are almost a thousand years of age? They are heavy, clumsy 
things, with very little real energy. Their laziness makes you want 
to prod them with a stick, and this is about the only way that the 
larger ones can be forced to move. There was one called Ponce de 
Leon, several hundred years old; and one known as Jack, almost 
as old. Then there were the squirmy little ones, thousands of them, 
wriggling around together like so many snakes. 

By this time we had to return for our late lunch ; so we hurried 
back to the center of the city. After lunch we walked to Fort 
Marion, another historic feature of great interest. When this fort 
was first built' it was made of wood, and was, of course, easily 
destructible. It was called San Juan de Pinos. Then it was burned 
down by invaders. At the close of the seventeenth century a new 
fort, the present Fort Marion, was built of coquina shells. Its en- 
trance opens into a large, square court. Here, during the invasion 
of the English, over fifteen hundred people were huddled together, 
with all their domestic animals, food and necessary household 
articles. On one side of the court is the dungeon, composed of 
several rooms. Here people were tortured to death, for there no air 
or sunlight penetrates the darkness. When the dungeon was discov- 
ered, many years later, two skeletons were found chained to cages, 
and this inner dungeon was plastered up with a wall several feet 
in thickness. Three fruitless attempts were made upon the fort 
by the English; at last the leaders went home, disgusted. Later, 


135 


some Americans tried to capture it, but they also failed in the effort. 
In 1762 Florida was given to Great Britain in exchange for Cuba, 
and then, of course, the English took the fort. In 1784 Spain re- 
gained Florida by giving up the Bahama Islands. Again the city 
of St. Augustine became the home of Spaniards. Then, in 1821, 
Spain yielded Florida to the United States in exchange for five 
millions of dollars, under a treaty of cession. The fact that Florida, 
and St. Augustine in particular, belonged to Spain for so long, 
accounts for its being more like a Spanish city in appearance than 
an American. 

All of these facts were told to us in an interesting way by an 
old guide who accompanied us through the fort. 

We have not spoken of the old city wall. The Spaniards built 
this shortly after the old fort, but all that remains of it are the 
•city gates. They are huge things, fully thirty feet high, and ;nark 
the entrance to the newer parts of St. Augustine. 

When we boarded the train for Jacksonville again that night 
we went with a feeling of sadness ; for there seemed to be so many 
things of marvel in St. Augustine, that we felt the day had been too 
short for us to see them all as intimately as we wished. 



MEMORIAL DAY 


M emorial day means just what it says: a day of memory, 
or a day for remembering; in this case, a day for remem- 
bering those who died for a good and great cause. That 
cause was the freedom of slaves in our United States and the preser- 
vation of the Union, whose life was threatened. 

In the war which we know as the Civil War, men gave up their 
lives for the sake of their convictions. Many of those who fought 


136 


had been friends in childhood; some were cousins who had romped 
and played together in days gone by; and sometimes even fathers 
and sons and brothers did battle on opposite sides. It was one of 
the saddest wars in all history, because it was fought between 
people of the same race and nation, by men who had for years been 
governed by the same laws, which they themselves had made. It 
was a period of upheaval. Thousands of lives were lost ; and it is in 
deference to the bravery of these men, both of the North and the 
South, that one day in the year, in this country, has been set apart 
to honor them. 

Sometimes this day, which falls on the thirtieth of May, is 
called “Decoration Day,” because it is then that the graves of our 
nation’s dead heroes are decorated with flowers and with flags. For 
several days before Memorial Day the school children are asked to 
bring plants and flags; these are gathered together and are taken 
to the different cemeteries in which Civil War soldiers have been 
buried. 

To the little handful of men still living, who fought in that 
terrible war, this day means much more than it can possibly mean to 
any one else. For it brings back recollections of the friends with 
whom they fought side by side ; it recalls experiences of a time of 
horror and strife; and often it brings thankfulness for their own 
good fortune in having escaped death on a battlefield. 

Many of our veteran soldiers find happiness in going around 
from one place to another on Memorial Day, telling of the great 
struggle and of the part they played in it. They, too, go to the 
graves of their dead comrades, and bow their heads in sorrow as 
they remember how this one or that one fell while in action, or died 
in some rough hospital from wounds received in one of the big 
battles. 

Our old soldiers, those who survived the Civil War, have been 
organized into what we know as the Grand Army of the Republic, 
and each year as many of them as are able come together in some 
one place to renew old acquaintances and to talk over old memories. 
Most of those who still live were scarcely more than boys when they 
fought in the great war; now that they are old men, they are proud 
to know that they once offered their lives, as well as their best 
services, for the sake of the land they love. 



137 


FAVORITE FAIRY TALES RETOLD 

HANSEL AND GRETEL 

From " Grimm’s Tales ” 

the edge of a dense forest lived a poor wood- 
3r and his two children. The man had married 
cond time, so that the boy and girl — Hansel 
Gretel — had a stepmother. The woodcutter 
never prosperous, but he had always managed 
jed his family, until there came a terrible fam- 
Then he found himself unable to earn bread 
for himself and his wife, to say nothing of his two healthy children. 
One night, after the children had gone to bed, the woodcutter sighed 
and said : “What can we do ? How can we feed the children when we 
ourselves have almost nothing?” 

“I know,” said the wife. “Tomorrow, before the sun is up, we 
will take the children out into the forest to gather wood. After 
a while we will build a fire and let them sit down and eat a little 
bread. In the meantime, we will leave them. They can never find 
their way out by themselves.” 

“No ; we can never do that,” said the poor husband. “My heart 
would break at losing my dear children, who would probably be 
eaten up by wild beasts.” 

“You are very foolish to let us all starve, as we shall do,” replied 
the wife. All night long she worried him with her plans, and at last 
he had to give in. 

The two children, in bed, had, however, heard the words of their 
parents. Gretel began to cry with fear, but Hansel said: “Never 
mind, little sister; I’ll take care of you, and we shall find a way to 
save ourselves.” 

After his parents had gone to sleep. Hansel got up, opened the 
door softly and stole out. He stooped down and, by the light of 
the brightly shining moon, gathered a pocketful of white pebbles. 
Then he crept quietly back and patted Gretel’s arm. “All is well, 
sister; I know now what to do. So go to sleep and pray God to 
take care of us.” 

Before sunrise, the stepmother came to the two children and 
cried: “Get up, lazybones! We are going out into the forest to 
gather wood.” Then she gave each a small portion of bread and they 
started off. 

As Hansel went along he kept looking back at the house, until 
his father said : “Come, hurry up, son ! Why do you linger?” Asa 
matter of fact. Hansel was scattering pebbles by the way. 



138 


At last they reached the middle of the forest, and their father 
said : “Now, children, get busy ! Gather some sticks, and I will light 
a fire.” So Hansel and Gretel collected a nice pile of kindling wood, 
and the woodcutter lighted it. Then the stepmother said ; “Now, lie 
down by the fire, while we chop some wood. We will soon return 



HANSEL AND GRETEL IN THE WITCH’S HOUSE 


139 



Hansel and his sister did as they were told. At noon they ate 
their lunch and a little later fell asleep. When they awoke it was 
night, and Gretel began at once to cry. Hansel said: “Wait for the 
moon, and we can easily see the pebbles.” So they waited, and, sure 
enough, by following the pebbles, they arrived home early next 
morning. The stepmother was very angry and blamed them for 
sleeping. But she again began to coax her husband to lose the 
children. Once more Hansel overheard their plans. He did not dare 
to use stones again, so this time he scattered bits of bread as he 
went. On this occasion they went much deeper into the wood. Once 
again the children fell asleep and awoke after it was dark, but 
Hansel was not afraid. He knew that when the moon arose he could 
easily find his way back by means of the crumbs. 

Sad to say, however, when the moon did come up. Hansel 
discovered that his bread was gone. The birds had eaten it all up. 
Now the children were frightened and wandered through the forest, 
trying to find their way out. But it was all in vain. At last they 
grew so weary that they just had to lie down and rest. After 
a while they started up again, but the more they walked, the deeper 
into the forest they seemed to go. While they were hesitating, 
they saw, up in a tree, a beautiful, snow-white bird. The bird looked 
down upon them, then spread his wings as if motioning them to 
follow him. The two children did so, and reached a small house, on 
the roof of which the bird alighted. As the children drew near they 
saw that the house was made all of candy. They were so hungry 
by this time that they stopped and broke off a piece of the roof. 
Then, all at once, they heard a thin, squeaky voice cry : 

“Nibble, nibble and munch — 

Who’s eating my cottage for lunch?” 

The children were frightened, but answered: “It is only 
the wind.” 

Suddenly the door flew open, and out came the queerest-looking 
woman imaginable. She was all bent and wrinkled, and was very 
old. Seeing Hansel and Gretel, she said: “Why! my dear children, 
how glad I am to see you! Come in and I will take care of you.” 
Then she took them in and fed them with all sorts of good things. 
After that she undressed them and put them into two tiny 
white beds. 

The old woman was, however, a wicked old witch, and she had 
trapped the children in order to eat them. 

The next morning she went to the beds and looked them over 
carefully. Then she seized Hansel and carried him off to a little 
cage and locked him in. The boy screamed, but it was of no use. 


140 


She merely returned to Gretel and commanded her to get up and 
bring some water. She then prepared food for Hansel, for he was 
to be fattened up so that she could make a meal of him ! 

Thereafter Hansel was fed with all kinds of dainties, while 
Gretel was given only scraps. Early each morning the old witch 
came to the cage and cried : “Put out your finger, so I can feel how 
fat you are.” 

Hansel soon learned that the old woman was almost blind, so 
each time he took a bone and held it out to her. Of course, this 
made it appear that he was not getting any fatter. Finally, the old 
woman became impatient, and one day she said : “Get some water, 
Gretel ; I will eat Hansel today, be he fat or be he lean !” 

Then Gretel cried and cried, and prayed for help. 

“We will bake first,” said the witch. So she lighted the fire, and 
soon there came a hot blaze. “Crawl in and see if the oven is hot 
enough,” she then said to Gretel. This was an attempt to get Gretel 
in, to roast her too. Gretel realized what was intended, and said : 
“The oven door is too narrow. How can I get through ?” 

“You goose!” answered the witch. “It’s quite big enough. 
Why, look, I can get in myself I” 

No sooner had she put her head into the oven, hov/ever, than 
Gretel gave her a violent push, so that she went right in. Then the 
little girl locked the oven up tightly, and left the old witch to burn. 
She went at once to Hansel, crying: “We are free! We are free!” 
and unbolted the cage door. 

The children hugged each other with joy, after which they 
decided to look over the place. Upstairs they found trunks a«id 
chests filled with precious stones and gold and silver. Hansel 
stuffed his pockets, and Gretel her apron, and then they set off. 
They came to a lake after a while, but could not get across. A white 
duck came sailing along, and Gretel cried : “Pretty Duck, please take 
us over?” So the duck obligingly came up and carried them over 
on his back, one at a time. Then they walked on and on, for some 
distance, and, strangely enough, things around them appeared to 
grow more familiar. Suddenly they realized that they were almost 
home, and then they saw their father’s cottage. At once they started 
to run, and glad indeed was the poor woodcutter when first he saw 
them! He had missed them sorely, and had regretted his cruelty. 
The stepmother had died while they were gone, and now, with all 
their wealth, they could live happily. 


141 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 

XI. ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND 


OU have been told that after the death of Queen 
Mary, her half-sister, Elizabeth, came to the 
throne of England. Mary, who was the daughter 
of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, was a 
Catholic, but Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry 
VIH and Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, was 
a Protestant. 

The childhood of Elizabeth was not an altogether happy one. 
Her father’s numerous marriages made it hard at times for Eliza- 
beth to know just what she was. At one moment she was called 
Princess Elizabeth; at another time her father would practically 
disown her and order that she was to be considered simply as 
Lady Elizabeth. 

For most of her girlhood Elizabeth lived in one of her father’s 
smaller castles, at Hunsden, with only a governess to keep her com- 
pany. Often she did not have sufficient clothing, and her living was 
decidedly poor. She was, however, an exceptionally bright girl. 




SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND QUEEN ELIZABETH 


142 


She profited by the fact that she lived away from the bustle of the 
court, since she used her leisure for study. Before she was seven- 
teen she was a proficient scholar, being able to speak with fluency 
a number of foreign languages, and having acquired a large store 
of historic and literary information that was presently to help in 
making her one of the best-educated women in the history of English 
queens. 

Queen Mary, while reigning, was jealous of this younger sister. • 
At one time she even sought to get rid of her. She did have her 
imprisoned in the Tower of London, on the pretext of having found 
her involved in a plot to dethrone the queen. The evidence, how- 
ever, was slight, and, after a short time, Elizabeth was released. She 
then retired to an estate at Woodstock, and once more read French 
and Spanish and dreamed probably of a day when she might inherit 
the kingdom. 

Elizabeth was born in 1533. She was twenty-five years of age 
when she became queen. Though she was Protestant in her relig- 
ion, she did not practice the kind of intolerance of which her sister 
Mary had been guilty. As a matter of fact, Elizabeth loved music 
and dancing; she was interested in literature and art; and she did 
not like war and the horrors that war brings. She was wise in a 
political sense, and very skilful as a diplomat. Under Elizabeth’s 
guidance, England was raised to a pinnacle of prosperity such as 
she had never before known, and at no point in her history had 
there been such a wealth of real literature produced. 

Elizabeth gathered around her a number of remarkable men. 
Among her close friends were Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis 
Drake and the Earl of Leicester. She had many suitors, both at 
home and abroad, but she never married. There were times when 
she seemed to favor now this one or again that one ; but though she 
half-promised to marry at different times, she finally dismissed all 
her admirers as possible husbands and remained single to her death. 

Her love of progress did make her desire to reach out and learn 
new things. She permitted and encouraged the men of her court 
to go on exploring expeditions. The famous sea voyages of Drake 
were made while she was queen. Walter Raleigh sent out expedi- 
tions to establish the colony of Virginia. It was Raleigh who 
planted the potato found in America, in the garden on his Irish 
estate, and it was he who introduced the smoking of the tobacco leaf 
at court. 

There js a pretty story told of Raleigh’s first meeting with the 
queen. The young man had just come from the country to London. 
Elizabeth was making a state call. As she stepped from her 
carriage she found herself on the edge of a muddy spot in the road. 


143 


Raleigh, seeing her hesitate, pulled his richly embroidered cloak 
from his shoulder and spread it over the spot, thus affording the 
queen a dry place on which to cross. His graceful act pleased the 
queen, and she presented him with a diamond ring. She also 
attached him to her train, and he was soon a great favorite. 

Later, however, Raleigh fell in love with one of the queen’s 
ladies in waiting. When he signified his wish to marry her, Eliza- 
beth was very angry. She did not wish to marry Raleigh herself, 
but she disliked having her admirers show attention to other women, 
and, with very little excUse, she had Raleigh sent to the Tower of 
London. He stayed there for six months ; then Elizabeth freed him, 
though she would not have him at court. 

The greatest enemies of England during Elizabeth’s reign were 
the Spaniards. Queen Mary had been unhappily married to King 
Philip, of Spain. When Mary died, Philip felt that he had a claim 
on the English throne. He hated Elizabeth, and was determined 
to crush her. The Spaniards fitted out a great fleet and sent it 
against England. Elizabeth’s wise handling of the situation, 
through her trusted courtiers, most of whom were sailors and 
soldiers, led to a meeting between the English and the Spaniards 
in the English Channel. The result was that the great Spanish 
Armada, as the fleet was called, was put to rout. After that the 
Spaniards let the English alone. 

Elizabeth was much interested in the theatre, which was just 
coming to a high point of popularity at the time of her reign. She 
summoned William Shakespeare to play before her, and several of 
the Shakespearean plays were given in her presence. She signified 
herself well pleased, and bestowed more than a few honors on the 
company. 

As Elizabeth grew older she became more and more vain. 
When an old woman she insisted on dressing like a young girl and 
would not tolerate a suggestion as to her real age. Her vanity often 
made her appear foolish, since she still wanted to dance when she 
was stiff with rheumatism. She had the idea that her personal 
beauty — as a matter of fact, Elizabeth was not even good-looking — 
was the reason for her success as a diplomat. The truth was that 
she had a fine brain and knew how to use it; but men, realizing 
that she was so vain, indulged her vanity and pretended to consider 
her beautiful. 

Elizabeth’s last illness was pathetic. She was old and feeble, 
and she had been disagreeable to most of her best friends. When 
she came to her deathbed she was practically alone in the world: 
there was really no one to feel a great deal of affection for her, and 
she died in deep misery. 


144 





THE CHILD’S TREASURE OF MYTHS 

XII. NIOBE 

}T is a very sad tale that is told of Niobe, who was 
a Queen of Thebes. Her husband, the king, was a 
son of Zeus, and Niobe was the mother of fourteen 
children — seven sons and seven daughters. Be- 
cause of this she was exceedingly proud; for her 
seven daughters were all beautiful, and her seven 
sons were as brave and as gallant as a mother 
could hope for her sons to be. It seemed to Niobe that she had just 
cause for pride, and all might have been well had she not boasted so 
much of her children and compared them with those of a goddess. 

As you know, many of the goddesses who lived on Mount 
Olympus were jealous of their sisters who lived on the earth. One 
of the proudest of them all was Latona, the mother of Apollo, 
god of the sun, and of Diana, goddess of the chase and of the moon. 

Now, Niobe knew that Latona thought her son and daughter 
remarkable children. Therefore, she was unwise, to say the least, 
to attract the attention of the goddess to her own large and hand- 
some family. This, however, was just what she did. She made it 
plain to everybody that she believed Latona poor in comparison with 
herself, because Latona had only one son and one daughter, while 
she, Niobe, had seven sons and seven daughters. 

Latona paid no attention at first to Niobe’s continual boasting. 
Then something happened that gave her cause for action. 

Each year the people of Thebes held a great festival in honor of 
Latona and her children. Altars were set up and the crowd wor- 
shiped before them, bringing their gifts to the gods. 

Niobe, with a crown of laurel leaves on her head, and wearing a 
gorgeous costume, came out to the festival. When she saw the 
people of her kingdom bowing to Latona, her thoughts became 
bitter. She permitted herself to speak thus to them : 


145 



“People of Thebes, how foolish you are! Here you worship 
Latona and her son and daughter, while right in your midst is a 
greater even than Latona. Am I not more queenly than the mother 
of Apollo? Have I not seven sons as handsome as the god of the 
silver bow? Have I not seven daughters as lovely as Diana the 
huntress? Why pray to the gods? Your own king and queen can 
do as much and more for you.” 

Her words had the desired effect on the people. They turned 
their thoughts away from the gods and shouted loudly for Niobe 
and her children. 



NIOBE BECOMES A MOUNTAIN SPRING 


146 


Up on Olympus, Latona saw what was going on. She deter- 
mined to punish Niobe. Her heart shut itself against all thoughts 
of kindness or gentleness, and she called Apollo and Diana to her. 

“Go!” she commanded them. “Punish the proud Queen of 
Thebes as she deserves. She has tried to put shame upon me, and 
now will I be revenged!” 

Both Apollo and his sister were angry when they realized what 
Niobe had done, and they hastened together to the city of Thebes. 

All Thebes was gathered for the sports that were held during 
the festival. Among those who ran and wrestled, were the seven 
sons of Niobe. Handsomer than all others, and more skilled in the 
games, the seven princes were always victors. Apollo singled them 
out at once. The oldest son of Niobe was the first to fall from the 
arrow which the god let fly at him ; a second brother followed imm.e- 
diately after. Two others of the princes were locked in each other’s 
arms, wrestling ; the god let an arrow fly which passed through both 
their bodies, pinning them together. The remaining three sons met 
with a similar fate in a few minutes. 

Niobe was summoned out to see what had happened. Great 
was her grief ! She knew that this was the punishment of Latona, 
and her heart was filled with hate. She made an even greater 
mistake than she had made in the first place. She gave way to 
her hatred for Latona, and she also expressed her contempt for the 
mother of the gods. “She has killed my sons,” the grief-stricken 
queen cried; “but I have still seven lovely daughters! Try, 0 La- 
tona ! to match their beauty with that of thy only son and daughter.” 

Then Diana was filled with wrath. Even as her brother had 
shot down Niobe’s seven sons, so she now sped her arrows, one by 
one, against Niobe’s daughters. Six of them fell, and when it was 
the turn of the last and youngest, the poor queen, heart-broken and 
ready for repentance, begged for mercy. Diana, however, knew no 
mercy ; with a laugh, she took the smallest girl even as she had taken 
the others. 

The King of Thebes killed himself when he realized that his 
children were dead. As for Niobe, she sat with the bodies of her 
children, and for nine days never left off weeping. Even the gods 
were moved by her tears. At last it was decided to turn the bodies 
into stone and bury them. But what to do with the stricken mother 
they scarcely knew. Finally, they turned her to stone too, and a 
great tempest carried her up to a mountain-top. But even then 
her tears did not cease to flow, so that from her eyes came a spring 
of clear water, which flows on and on to symbolize her never-ending 
and undying grief. 


H7 


AMERICAN HEROES 

ULYSSES S. GRANT 

I NTO a small home in Point 
Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 
1822, was born a little boy 
who proved to be, in days that 
followed, one of the nation’s 
greatest men. This was Ulysses 
Grant. The elder Grant was a 
' tanner, and earned just enough 
money to keep the family in a 
small, two-roomed cabin in this 
little Ohio village. When Ulysses 
was a year old the family moved 
to Georgetown, in the same 
State, and it was here that the boy grew up into manhood. He was 
an industrious little chap, for at seven years of age he hauled all the 
firewood that was used both in the tannery and in his home. When 
he was eleven he did farm work. His father owned a small farm, 
and Ulysses broke up the land, furrowed and plowed it, sowed the 
corn and potatoes, and brought in the crops at harvest, still 
attending at the same time to his earlier task of hauling wood. 

Grant was a short, stocky boy, with brown hair, a round, 
freckled face, and very jolly gray-blue eyes. He was gentle and 
easy-going, disliking coarse talk and rough play, seeking rather the 
company of the more serious boys and girls. He loved animals and 
always had many pets, of which he took the best of care. 

• Owing to his son’s great amount of energy and seeming clever- 
ness, Mr. Grant decided to give Ulysses the best education he could, 
and sent him to the nearest school. At the age of fourteen, Ulysses 
left the Georgetown school and went to Maysville Seminary, in Ken- 
tucky. He did not wish to follow his father’s business, and Mr. 
Grant, being a reasonable man, did not insist upon it. Instead, he 
asked if Ulysses would like to go to West Point, where education 
was free. The boy was delighted, and thereupon his father applied 
for an appointment. After it was received. Grant decided that 
he would rather not go, as he had no inclination toward soldiering, 
but his father finally persuaded him to try it. 

Grant’s first name was really Hiram, but because his initials 
spelt “hug,” the boy objected, and when registering for West Point 



148 


he signed himself “U. H. Grant/’ 'A curious incident later changed 
the name still further. When his appointment was sent to a 
Representative in Ohio, that individual, knowing only that the first 
name was Ulysses, had so given it to the Secretary of War. When 
asked for the middle initial, he gave “S,” because Mrs. Grant’s 
maiden name had been Simpson. So, when Ulysses went to head- 
quarters at West Point, he found that he was enlisted as “Ulysses S. 
Grant.” 

After serving his cadet term, Ulysses Grant was stationed with 
his company at St. Louis. Then came the Mexican War, in which 
the Fourth Infantry, to which he belonged, was summoned to the 
border. 

Grant was now a brevet captain, and procured a leave of 
absence. During this time he married Miss Julia Dent. Then, for 
some reason, he left the army, much to the amazement of many. 
He seemed, after this, to have no especial calling. He failed in one 
thing after another, until he became a clerk in his brother’s tannery. 

When the Civil War broke out. Grant re-enlisted, and went to 
the State capital, but he did not seem to be wanted. Finally, 
however, he was given command of a regiment, in which the men 
soon learned that, despite his easy and quiet manner, he would be 
obeyed. 

Grant gained a great victory at Fort Donelson, and when asked 
by the Confederate commander for the terms of surrender, he 
replied that nothing but an “unconditional surrender” would do. 
This gave him still another promotion. The greatest of all of 
Grant’s victories was that at Vicksburg. This town was built on a 
ridge of high land which stood above the Mississippi, and was pro- 
tected by a long line of forts along the S-shaped bend of the river. 
For two months Grant laid siege to Vicksburg, and, by means of a 
series of mines, compelled it to surrender. 

Then came Chattanooga, another battle that brought him 
fame. Lincoln was so well pleased with Grant’s success then that 
he made him commander of all the armies of the United States. 
It was due in large degree to Grant’s generalship that Lee was 
forced to surrender at Appomattox Court House. 

After Lincoln’s death, the Presidential chair was for a time 
occupied by Johnson. Johnson was impeached by Congress, and 
when the next Presidential election fell due. Grant, somewhat 
against his personal wishes, became a candidate. 

During the campaign he made little attempt to win the people. 
It was not necessary, for his modesty and greatness had already 
won many, and he was elected. 


149 


During his administration - he succeeded in having several ‘ 
excellent measures adopted. “Civil Service” examinations became 
necessary for many appointments where political influence had 
before that time been used. 

Attacks were made upon Grant by a few enemies, but for the 
most part he was extremely popular. He was renominated at the 
end of four years, and again elected. 

After his term was over, Mr. and Mrs. Grant and one of their 
sons set sail for Europe. They went through all the countries and 
were greeted kindly everywhere. He lived quietly until 1885. 



FAMOUS FAIRY TALES RETOLD 

ALADDIN AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP 

From “The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments” 


LADDIN was the son of a poor tailor, in a wealthy 
province of China. As soon as he was old enough, 
the boy was taken into his father’s workshop to 
learn the trade. Aladdin, however, had no desire 
to work, but wanted to play and run the streets. 
When he was still quite young, his father died ; and 
since the idle fellow refused to help to support 
himself and his mother, the latter was forced to spin cotton to keep 
them in food. 

One day, when he was almost fifteen, as Aladdin was playing 
with his companions, a stranger came by, who stopped and watched 
him. This man was a famous magician from Africa, who was look- 
ing for just such a lazy creature as Aladdin. Being quick at judging 
natures, he immediately saw what Aladdin was, but, in order to be 
quite sure, he inquired of the people nearby and learned who the 
boy was. Then he went up to Aladdin, took him by the shoulders, 
and said: “My good lad, art thou not the son of Mustophor, the 
tailor?” 



150 


“Yes, sir,” said Aladdin ; “but my father is no longer living.” 

“Alas ! what sad, sad news !” said the stranger. “I am thy uncle, 
the brother of thy father. For years I have wandered abroad, and 
now that I have returned with a hope of seeing him, I find him 
dead !” While he spoke, great tears ran down his cheeks. Then he 
pulled out several pieces of gold from his purse and handed them 
to the boy, saying: “Here, my lad; take these to thy mother, and 
tell her that to-night I will come to sup with her.” 

Aladdin ran in glee to his mother. “Have I an uncle, mother, 
who has been away for many years?” he asked. “No,” replied his 
mother ; “that thou hast not.” The boy then gave her the gold and 
told his story. In amazement, the woman took the money and went 
out to market to buy provisions for supper. Not long after, the 
magician arrived at the humble home, and with him came a servant 
bringing all kinds of delicious fruits and sweets. For a long time 
he told them of his travels. Then he turned to the boy and asked 
him his name. Aladdin told him, and the magician then asked his 
business. At this Aladdin hung his head ; but his mother answered : 
“My son is an idle fellow. His father tried to teach him his trade, 
but he preferred to play in the streets.” The stranger turned to 
Aladdin, and said: “This will not do, my boy. You must employ 
your time profitably. How would you like me to take a shop and 
furnish it for you?” Aladdin was delighted with the suggestion. 

“I will take you to-morrow and buy you handsome clothes, and 
then we will look up a shop,” said the uncle. 

Next day the man came, and the two went to the store, where 
Aladdin was given the very best suits and was then feasted grandly. 

Early the next morning, Aladdin was up and was soon arrayed 
to meet his uncle. When he arrived they set out at once, for the 
magician said that he had many fine things to show his nephew. He 
took him through some beautiful gardens, with wonderful houses 
standing within them. Then at last they stopped to rest, and the 
stranger said : “I am going to strike a light, and do you now gather 
all the sticks you can find to build a fire.” 

When Aladdin returned, the light was made and the magician 
was throwing a perfume from his hand upon the fire. Then, as a 
cloud of smoke arose, he uttered a few strange words. At these, the 
ground shook and opened up. Here was seen a square stone, with a 
brass ring in the center. Aladdin was greatly frightened, and 
started to run, but the African struck him so violently that he 
trembled all over. “In the future, my boy, do as I say, and you 
will be safe. Beneath that stone is hidden a great treasure, which 
will make you richer than kings if you will but obey me.” 


151 


Aladdin recovered from his fear and said: “Well, tell me what 
to do, and I will obey.” — “Very well,” replied the man; “take hold of 
this ring and lift up the stone.” Aladdin quickly did so, and found 
that there was a small opening, at the bottom of which was a little 
door, with steps below. “Now,” said the magician, “you must go to 
the bottom of these steps. There an open door leads into three great 
halls. In each of these, on both sides, you will see four bronze vases 
of great size, full of gold and silver. These you must not touch. 
Through all of these halls you must go, but be careful that your 
clothing does not brush against the walls, or you will die instantly. 
At the end of the last hall is a door through which you will enter a 
beautiful garden, filled with trees laden with wonderful fruit. Here 
you will see a path which will lead to the bottom of a flight of steps, 
above which is a terrace. Here also is a niche, and in it a lighted 
lamp. Take the lamp and turn out the light. Pour out the oil, 
and carry away the lamp in your bosom. If you desire any of the 
fruit, you may gather as much as you wish.” 

When he had finished, the magician took off a ring and gave it 
to his nephew. Aladdin jumped into the opening and began to 
carry out all the directions given him. He carefully walked through 
the halls, and, without stopping once, reached the niche and took 
out the lamp. On his way back, he picked great quantities of fruit. 
It was queer fruit — white pearls, sparkling diamonds, deep crimson 
rubies, and green emeralds. 

At last he was at the bottom of the steps above which stood 
the magician. Aladdin called : “Help me up.” — “Give me the lamp, 
first,” said the magician; “for it will hinder you.” — “No; it is all 
right. I will give it to you when I am out.” 

Despite the stranger’s insistence, Aladdin refused to give up 
the lamp. The magician then became angry. He threw some per- 
fume on the fire, uttered a few magic words, and the entrance to 
the cave was closed. Aladdin cried for help, but to no avail. For 
two days he remained there, without food or drink. Then suddenly, 
by accident, he touched the ring on his finger. Immediately a great 
spirit rose before him. “What dost thou wish ? lam the slave of 
the owner of this ring, and, therefore, wait to obey thy command.” 
So spoke the spirit, or genie. Aladdin then cried: “Take me out 
of this place.” At once he found himself on the road home. Fainting 
with hunger, he reached his mother’s door. She was overjoyed to 
see him, and gave him food. The next morning, when he awoke, 
Aladdin asked for more food, but his mother sadly replied: “My 
dear son, there is no food. I have, however, some cottons all spun 
which I will sell.” 




153 



“Never mind, mother,” said Aladdin ; “but hand me the lamp I 
brought last night. I will sell it.” — “Here it is,” said the good 
woman, and began at once to clean it. Suddenly a huge genie sprang 
up and cried : “What dost thou wish ?” The mother was terrified, 
but Aladdin replied : “Bring me something to eat.” 

The genie disappeared, but soon returned with huge dishes of 
delicious food, after which he vanished. The food lasted them many 
days, and then Aladdin sold the beautiful silver dishes in which they 
had come. 

One day Aladdin told his mother that he had decided to marry 
the daughter of the Sultan. “Poor boy,” said she; “you are but a 
tailor’s son, and have no riches to give the Sultan.” However, 
Aladdin brought out his jewel box, consulted his mother as to how 
precious the stones were, and begged her to go to the Sultan and 
intercede for him. The mother went to the palace, and, in fear and 
trembling, laid her petition before the monarch. Then she showed 
him her fine jewels, and the Sultan was overwhelmed with their 
magnificence. He answered her: “I will indeed give my daughter 
to thy son, as soon as he sends me forty basins of gold, filled with 
these jewels and carried by forty slaves.” 

Discouraged, the mother returned home, but Aladdin only 
smiled when she told her story. After she had left him, he rubbed 
the lamp until the genie appeared. Aladdin told him what he 
wanted, and at once there stood before him forty slaves, each with 
a golden basin filled with jewels. Aladdin persuaded his mother 
to lead them to the Sultan. When the king saw all this splendor, 
he called out: “Bring me thy son, good woman, that I may wel- 
come him !” 

Aladdin, having ordered beautiful garments from the genie, 
now arrived upon a charger, accompanied by slaves. Then there 
was a great feast, and the Sultan promised Aladdin his daughter 
just as soon as he had time to have a palace built for her. The very 
next morning, when the Sultan arose, he beheld with amazement a 
magnificent palace standing close to his own. He sent for Aladdin 
and said : “Today thou shalt wed my daughter.” So the two were 
married, and were quite happy for some time. 

But the African magician heard about Aladdin’s great wealth, 
and made up his mind to do evil to him. While Aladdin was out 
one day, a man went through the streets, crying : “Who will change 
old lamps for new?” He stood under the window of the princess. 
One of the slaves, remembering the old lamp in the room of her 
mistress, asked if she might not exchange it. Having obtained 
permission, she brought out the magic lamp. Of course, the man 
in the street was the magician. As soon as he got the lamp, he 


154 


rubbed it and commanded the genie to set the palace out in the wilds 
of Africa. When Aladdin returned, he was met with the bad tidings. 
The Sultan was angry, and ordered him to get the princess within 
forty days, or die. 

Aladdin left the palace, but knew not where to go. By chance, 
he touched the ring on his finger, and the genie who appeared, said : 
“What wilt thou have?” — “Oh, genie!” cried Aladdin; “bring back 
my palace and my bride.” — “That I cannot do,” said the genie ; “that 
is the service of the genie of the lamp.” — “Then take me to it imme- 
diately,” Aladdin cried. Instantly he stood before the palace, in a 
strange country, and there was the princess, grieving for him. 
Seeing him, she was about to reach down to him, but he silenced her 
and beckoned to her to let him in. When she did so, he said : “Where 
is the old lamp that I left in thy room ?” The princess then told him 
about it, and how the tyrant, in whose power she was, always 
carried the lamp with him. 

At last they decided that the princess should invite the magician 
to dine with her, and put a powder in his wine. The plan was 
carried out ; and when the wine was brought in, the magician drank 
of it. At once he fell unconscious to the floor. 

Aladdin, close by, seized the lamp and began rubbing it. Of 
course, he asked at once to have the palace replaced. So it was that 
the next morning Aladdin’s palace stood in its accustomed place, and 
all were again happy. 



155 


LITTLE STORIES OF GREAT PEOPLE 

XII. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 

W HILE Henry VIII was King of England, there was bom in 
Scotland, in 1542, a little princess who was destined to 
have a sad and stormy life. At that time Scotland was an 
independent kingdom and James V was its king. When he heard 
that a girl-baby had been born to him he felt very badly. Already 
ill, he did not seem to make any effort to get better, and a few days 
after the birth of the Princess Mary he died. 



MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS 


The very next year the baby was crowned queen by a Catholic 
cardinal, who took upon himself the duties of managing the kingdom 
for her. 

Over in England, King Henry saw in the baby queen a chance 
to unite the English and Scotch kingdoms. He wanted to make 
a treaty that would marry Mary to his own son, who was later 
to become King Edward VI. The Scotch people did not wish this to 
happen, and therefore King Henry invaded Scotland with his army. 
After two attempts, however, to overcome the Scotch he gave it up ; 


156 


and a little later Scotland made a treaty with France, which ar- 
ranged for the marriage, after a while, of Queen Mary and the 
Dauphin, or crown prince. 

In 1548 the girl-queen was sent to France to live. There she 
was educated, and passed gay and happy years at the court of 
Henry II. The result was that she grew up far more French than 
Scotch — a thing that her people never forgave in her. 

At the age of sixteen Mary married the Dauphin, who was 
weak and sickly. A little more than a year after the marriage the 
Dauphin died. As a widow, then, Mary went back to Scotland, to 
become the real queen in her own kingdom. 

At this time Mary was a very beautiful girl, and as charming 
in her ways as she was lovely of face'. She was also clever, and was 
quite as capable of ruling wisely as was her cousin Elizabeth, now 
Queen of England. 

It was, however, a very rebellious people over whom Mary had 
come back to rule. Scotland was torn by religious differences. John 
Knox, the great Protestant preacher, was most powerful in the 
kingdom, and he did not intend that the queen should turn her 
people back to Catholicism. Also, Knox thought, because Mary 
was gay and happy and loved life and pretty clothes, that she was 
wicked and frivolous as well. He preached against her and to her, 
but he could not convert her to his views. 

The first serious mistake that Mary made was in trying to get 
Queen Elizabeth to name her as the heir to the throne of England. 
Mary maintained that if Elizabeth died without children, she was 
the next in the line of succession. Elizabeth, who was probably 
jealous of Mary’s beauty, would not do this, and she let her feeling 
against Mary work harm to the Scottish queen. The truth was that 
Mary was much more lovable than Elizabeth, and had a great deal 
more of goodness and kindness in her heart. 

The second mistake of which Mary was guilty came with her 
second marriage. There were many men who wished to marry her, 
but she chose one of the vainest and weakest of them all. He was 
Henry Darnley, and he wanted badly to be the acknowledged king 
of Scotland. Mary would not permit this, as she preferred to keep 
the reins of government in her own hands. She let her husband 
see that she had found out what a poor sort of man he was. At the 
same time, she showed that she liked very well the man who was 
her secretary, an Italian by the name of David Rizzio. Lord Darnley 
grew jealous of Rizzio, and one night, while they were all at supper 
in the queen’s room, Rizzio was murdered. It was thought that 
Darnley had helped this to happen. 


157 


Then it was that Mary made her third mistake. There was in 
her court a man by the name of Bothwell, known as the Earl of 
Bothwell. He was a big, burly man, very strong in body and rather 
cruel in his type of mind. A year after Rizzio was killed. Lord 
Darnley was found murdered in a lonely place in the country. The 
Earl of Bothwell was suspected of having had something to do with 
the murder. In spite of this, Mary married Bothwell. The people 
in Scotland were very much shocked, but Mary and Bothwell paid 
no heed. They were happy for a short time; then Mary realized 
that she had married a brute, and trouble began. 



MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, LED TO EXECUTION 

From the paintingr by L. J. PoTT 


In 1566 a son had been born to Mary and Darnley. When the 
Scotch people rose up against the rule of their queen and her 
consort, Bothwell, they were ready to proclaim the little James as 
king. A battle between the queen’s forces and the rebelling Scots 
took place in 1567, and Bothwell deserted Mary entirely when he 
saw the fight going against them. Mary was taken captive and 
imprisoned. In the end she was forced to sign away her throne in 
favor of her young son. 

Mary escaped from her prison, and again gathered her forces 
together. A severe engagement took place in 1568, and the queen’s 
men were badly worsted. Mary herself was forced to flee. 


158 


Then it was that she made the fourth and last great mistake 
of her life. She decided to go to England and take refuge with 
Queen Elizabeth. Of all people on earth, she was the least welcome 
at the court of the great English queen; for there were Catholic 
subjects in Elizabeth’s kingdom who felt that Mary should have 
been their queen instead of Elizabeth. Naturally, Elizabeth looked 
upon Mary with distaste and even with fear. After much debating, 
Mary was made practically a prisoner and a trial was agreed upon. 
The trial was a mere farce, and Mary was convicted. 

For nineteen years Mary remained a prisoner in England. In 
that time she was moved from place to place, and in every place 
where they put her she seemed able to make trouble. The truth was 
that, in her desperation, Mary was ready to plot with any one to get 
back her kingdom, and she was guilty of much that was unwise in 
her efforts to do this. 

Elizabeth’s advisers tried over and over again to get the Queen 
to consent to Mary’s death. Partly because she feared her Catholic 
subjects, and partly because she may have had some reluctance 
to sign the death warrant of her own cousin, Elizabeth put off the 
evil day. 

At last, however, a new and more daring plot than any before 
was brought to light. This time, Mary came to trial for her life, 
at Fotheringay Castle. Some say that the trial was fair; others 
contend that the Queen of the Scots was given no chance whatever. 
The Houses of Parliament asked for Mary’s immediate execution. 
Again Elizabeth hesitated, but finally she gave in, and on Febru- 
ary 8, 1587, Mary, very proud and very brave, laid down her head 
to receive the axe. 

The world is divided in its estimate of the character of the 
Queen of the Scots. Many believe that she was grievously wronged. 
On the other hand, even her greatest admirers must admit that she 
did foolish things, and that she paid the price for her foolishness. 





159 




I N the jolly month of June, 

When the birds, with lively tune. 

Make the echoes loud go ringing 
Through the woods, where branches, swinging. 
Bear their weight in gold of blossoms — 

Oh! this is June — sweet June! 


In the jolly month of June, 

Where, in gardens, rose-trees soon 
Will give their wealth in gorgeous flowers. 
Making bright the fairies’ bowers, 

Rich in faint, delicious perfume; — 

This is June — yes, fragrant June! 

Then let the children gaily sing ; 

Their voices through the fields will ring. 
Come, join with us in graceful dance. 

While lambs do leap, and colts do prance — 
Come, let’s be jolly altogether. 

In this warm, delightful weather ; — 

For it’s June — it’s lovely, lovely June! 


160 




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